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jj LIBRARY OF CONGRESsl 

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I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







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'{11. Cortez ■// Vpst>fl.<: 



A 

Popular School History 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES, 

IN WHICH ARE INSEBFEU AS PART OF THE NARRATIVE 

Selections from the Weitings of Eminent American 

Historians, and other American 

Writers of Note. 



TO WHICH ARE ADDED 



The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the 
TJnited States, with Copious Notes. 



FULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS, PORTRAITS, AJSTD VIEWS. 



JOHN J. ANDERSON, Ph.D., 

Author of a "Orammar School ffintor;/ of the United States," a "JIamcal of General 

HiHtory" a ''History of England," a "Hlstori/ qf'jFrahce," " The Historical 

Reader," "The United- States Reader," etc., etc. 



iW 1879. ^ 



NEW YORK: 

Clark &, Maynard, Publishers, 

5 Barclay Street. .' 

1879. 



Anderson's Historical Series. 



A Junior Class History of the United States. 

Illustrated with hundreds of portraits, views, maps, etc. 272 pages. IGmo. 

A Grammar School History of the United States. 

Annotated ; and illustrated with numerous portraits and views, and with more than 
forty maps, many of which are colored. 340 pp. 16mo. 

A Pictorial School History of the United States. 

Fully illustrated with maps, portraits, vignettes, etc. 420 pp. 12mo. 

A Popular School History of the United States, 

in which are inserted as a part of the narrative selections from tlie writings of eminent 
American historians and other American writers of note. Fully illustrated with maps, 
colored and plain ; portraits, views, etc. 356 pp. 12mo. 

A Manual of General History, riustrated with numerous " 

engravings and with beautifully colored maps showing the changes in the political di- 
visions of the world, and giving the location of important places. 488 pp. 12mo. 

A School History of England. illustrated with numerous 
engravings and with colored maps showing the geographical changes in the country at 
different periods. 333 pp. 12mo. 

A School History of France. illustrated with numerous en- 
graviugs, colored and uncolored maps. 373 pp. 12mo. 

A History of Rome. Amply illustrated with maps, plans, and 
engravings. 543 pp. By R. F. Leighton, Ph.D. (Lips.)- 

A School History of Greece, in preparation. 
Anderson's Bloss's Ancient History, illustrated with 

engravings, colored maps, and a chart. 445 pp. 12mo. 

1 he Historical Ixeader, embracing selections in prose and verse, 
from standard writers of Ancient and Modern History ; with a Vocabulary of Difficult 
Words, and Biographical and Geographical Indexes. 544 pp. 12nio. 

The United States Reader, embracing selections from eniincnr 
American historians, orators, statesmen, and poets, with explanatory observations, 
notes, etc. Arranged so as to form a Class-manual of United States History. Illustrated 
with colored historical maps. 414 pp. 12mo. 

Clark & MaYNARD, Publishers, 

6 Barclay Street, New York. 

Copyright, 1819, by JOHN J. ANDERSON. 

A 



PEEFAOE. 



A TEXT-BOOK upon the history of our country so compiled 
as to be a pleasant reading-book, with enough variety to give it 
all the interest properly t elonging to a reading-book, and, at 
the same time, contain all the United States history that is 
required for ordinary school purposes, has long been desired 
by many teachers. 

It has been the aim of the author of this work to meet this 
want. He has realized, however, that to undertake the prep- 
aration of the work without outside assistance would surely 
end in failure, for no such undertaking could possibly have 
within itself the elements of variety so necessary in a school 
reader. But variety, merely as such, is of no special impor- 
tance. It is that variety which not only elevates, but culti- 
vates and ennobles the mind of the pupil — a variety only to 
be obtained by selecting from the writings that have met the 
approval of men of judgment and scholarship. 

The plan carried out in this volume, it is believed, fully 
accomplishes this object. The works of all the American 
writers who have distinguished themselves in the domain of 
historic authorship, have been diligently consulted ; and, as 
far as seemed possible consistently with the size and scope of 
the undertaking in hand, these authors have been made to 
contribute to the contents of the volume. It may, therefore, 
be said to be the work of many — fifty or more — of our best 
writers, past as well as present ; and, in addition to its merits 
as a continuous historical narrative, it may be regarded as a 
text-book for young students in American literature. To 
know something of Bancroft, Palfrey, Prescott, Motley, IlaAV- 



iv Preface. 

thome, Irving, Bryant, Hildreth, Sparks, Everett, Parkman, 
and other distinguished xVmerican writers, and to have some 
knowledge of what and how they wrote, is not only to make 
a good beginning in an acquaintance with our leading authors 
and with the best American literature, but it is to create a 
taste for such literature and a desire for further acquaintance 
with these authors. 

In presenting another history of our country as a text-book 
for schools, it has been the aim of the writer to give only 
those events that were important in themselves, or that had an 
important bearing upon or relation to important results. It 
will be seen, then, that very much of that which finds a place 
in the ordinary school history, is not found here. Details, 
except as far as they are necessary to the proper understand- 
ing of what should be known, are entirely omitted. General- 
ly, they are not worth knowing, and, consequently, no time 
should be spent in lumbering the mind with them. For the 
same reason, dates have been given sparingly. The most 
prominent, those that mark the great events, are clearly 
given, while other events are regarded as contributing to, or 
resulting from these. More prominence has been given to 
the facts that have to do with the nation's progress in civil 
matters than to those of a military character. Therefore, the 
invention of the cotton-gin and the magnetic telegraph and 
the construction of railroads and steamboats, with the 
changes resulting therefrom, have been regarded and treated 
as of more value than the numerous small battles that in no 
wise modified the tendency of great events. 

Too much importance cannot be given to geography in its 
connection with history. It is certain that an accurate knowl- 
edge of history cannot be acquired and retained without a 
full and clear knowledge of its accompanying geography. 
Events, to be remembered, must be associated with place. 
To study history in any other way is to waste time, as every 
successful student and teacher must be able to testify. The 
numerous maps in this work cover all the geography belong- 



Preface. v 

ing to the events narrated that have occurred within the 
limits of the United States and Mexico. Whenever any place 
is mentioned, its exact location should at once be ascertained. 
This, like all the otlier books published by the writer, is a 
teaching manual. If history is to be taught in our schools, 
merely reading the story will not answer. It must be taught 
again and again just as other subjects are taught. If this 
course is not pursued and we look for satisfactory results, 
then are we unreasonable in our expectations. 

The Summaries in this book, placed at the close of the 
periods, are recommended to such teachers as are preparing 
classes for examination. These will be found, in most cases, 
all-sufficient. Afterward it will be a labor of love to put 
flesh upon the skeleton and inspire it with life. 



Hints for Teaching the History. 

1. "Give out " a short lesson, at tlie same time designating a map to be 
drawn by the pupils, on paper or slate, the map to show, among other 
things, tlie location of the important places mentioned in the lesson. 
IJtW" Let it be understood that no lesson is thorou<rhly acquired by a 
l)upil until he has learned how every place mentioned in it is located. 

2. Let the lesson be read by the class, care being taken to have all the 
proper names correctly ]>ronounced. Endeavor, also, to give interest to 
tlie lesson by enlarging upon the facts, throwing in historical incidents, 
and referring to authors. 

RECITATION. 

3. Let the maps be examined and criticised. la this duty the teacher 
may be aided by a system of examinations carried out by the pupils 
themselves, who will derive benefit in many respects by the exercise. 

4. Bring out the facts of the lesson with clearness, particularly the rela- 
tion of causes to results. Use outline wall-maps, and question freely on 
the geography. Occasionally have the maps drawn on the blackboard. 
dt^" Permit no answer to pass if it is not clear that the pupil is ac- 
quainted with the location of the places referred to in it. 

REVIEWS. 

5. Review by topics. Besides the oral method, the composition plan 
(see. p. 49) should occasionally be used. 

6. Dates. Do not require dates too freely, — the month and the day of the 
month in no case, unless there is a special reason for it. Take the date 
of an important event as a turninir-point ; and when it is well fixed in 
the mind, arrange on the one side the train of events as causes, and on 
the other the train of results. (See model, p. 180.) 



SELECTIONS AND AUTHORS. 



The Northmen's Discoveries. From "History of the Northmen," etc. 

Wheaton 15 

Henry Wheaton. — This eminent scliolar and statesman was born in 
Rhode Island in 1785. He held several important diplomatic positions 
in Europe, and while residing in Denmark published his "History of 
the Northmen." His contributioDS to American periodicals were numer- 
ous and marked by great ability ; but his fame rests mainly upon his 
" Elements of International Law " and his " History of tlie Laws of 
Nations." The latter appeared originally in French at Leipsic. "No 
one, save Washington," says Allibone, "has done more to make the 
name of America respected by scholars and honored by statesmen." His 
death occurred in 1848. 

Landing of Columbus. From " The Life and Voyages of Columbus." 

Irving 21 

"Washington Irving, one of the most distinguished of modern authors, 
was born in New York City in 1783. The production which first gave 
him a decided reputation was the famous " History of New York, by 
Diedrich Knickerbocker," published in 1809. This is a work of inimi- 
table humor, and was read with the greatest delight on both sides of the 
Atlantic. Sir Walter Scott enthusiastically admired it. The " Sketch 
Book" was published in London, and greatly enhanced the author's 
reputation. He also published " Life and Voyages of Columbus," " The 
Alhanibra," " Bracebridge Hall," "Life of Washington," and many 
other popular works. Irving's style is remarkable for its elegance and 
copiousness ; while the purity of his sentiments, his sympathy with 
mankind, his geniality and kindliness, his innocent and playful satire, 
mixed with the pathetic, make his writings an inexhaustible fountain of 
intellectual enjoyment. He died at his residence, Sunnyside, a charm- 
ing spot on the banks of the Hudson, November 28, 1859, universally 
loved and esteemed for his artlessness and benevolence of character, 
and honored not only for his genius, but for the virtues by which it 
was adorned. 

Return of Columbus to Spain. From ' ' The History of the Reign of 
Ferdinand and Isabella." Prescott 23 



viii Selections and Authors. 



William W. Prescott. — This eminent historian was born in Salem, 
Mass., in 1796, and was the fjrandson of Colonel Prescott, of Revolu- 
tionary fame. His principal works are the " History of Ferdinand and 
Isabella," " The Conquest of Mexico," " The Conquest of Peru," and the 
" History of the Reign of Philip H." The last-mentioned work he did 
not live to finish, dying in 1859. These various productions constitute 
a splendid contribution to English literature. The materials for their 
composition were collected with the most laborious research, and have 
been arranged with very great judgment and skill, while their style is a 
model for elegance and correctness. Though in affluent circumstances, 
and affected from early manliood with blindness, Mr. Prescott labored 
in his lit(;rary undertakings with indefatigable industry, and accom- 
plished a task beyond the powers of most men in the enjoyment of every 
faculty. His high moral worth, amiable disposition, and geniality of 
manners won for him the esteem of a very large circle of friends. 

The Iiidiiins. From " The History- of the United States." Ramsay.. 25 
David Ramsay, M.D., was born in Pennsylvania in 1749. After gradu- 
ating at the College of New Jersey, he studied medicine, and commenced 
practice in Charleston, South Carolina, where he resided during the 
remainder of his life. He was for several years (1782-5) a member of 
Congress, and during one year its president. His deatli was caused by 
a pistol-shot wound, received in the streets of Charleston, in 1815. In 
1785 he published bis " History of the Revolution in South Carolina;" 
and five years afterward the " History of the American Revolution," 
which was received with universal commendation. His " Life of Wash- 
ington" appeared in 1807, and the " History of South Carolina" in 1809. 
He was also the author of several other works. As a historian he was 
diligent in research, and his narrative is characterized by accuracy and 
impartiality, and is expressed in a simple and elegant style. 

The Mound Biiihlers. From " The Popular History of the United 

States." Bryant and Gay 27 

William C, Bryant, though pronounced as " the foremost of American 
poets," was also distinguished as a prose writer. He was many years 
the editor of the New York Ecening Pod. He was born in Massachu- 
setts in 1794. His death occurred in New York City in 1878. lie was 
universally esteemed for his active beneficence, unbending integrity, and 
kindness of disposition. 

Were the Indians the Mound Riindersl From "The Pre-Historlc 

Races in the United States." Foster 29 

John W. Foster, LL.D., an eminent geologist and arclueologist, was 



Selections and Authors. ix 



born in Massachusetts in 1815. Besides the above work, he was the 
author of the " Physical Geography of the Mississippi Valley." His 
.death occurred in 1873. 

The New Lands not India. From "The Conquest of Peru." Presco^"!;. 30 

De Soto's Expedition. From " The Pioneers of France in the New 

World." Parkman 34 

Francis Parkman, a native of Boston, was born in 1823. His various 
histories, "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," "The Pioneers, etc.," "The 
Jesuits in Nortli America," and other works, " exhibit a singular combina- 
tion of the talents of the historian with thoi?e of the novelist." They 
have been warmly commended by critics on both sides of the Atlantic. 
No liistorical course of reading can be complete that excludes these 
charming volumes. 

Discovery of the Mississippi. From " The Conquest of Florida." T. 

Irving 35 

Theodore Irving, LL.D., nephew of Washington Irving, was born in 
New York in 1809. Besides "The Conquest," he has written "The 
Fountain of Waters," and contributed numerous articles, mostly of a 
devotional character, to periodicals. His style is " terse and graceful." 

Bnrial of De Soto. A translation from the " Knight of Elvas," a Spanish 

narrative. Smith 36 

Buckingham Smith was born in Georgia in 1810. He published a 

number of works, most of which were translations from the Spanish. 

" Few American scholars have been so conversant with the materials of 

early American history as Mr. Smith." He died in 1871. 

Drake's Voyage Around the World. From " The History of Oregon 

and California." Bohert Greenhow 37 

(See note, page 198.) 

Marquetteon the Mississippi. From " The Discovery and Exploration 

of the Mississippi River." Shea 41 

John D. Gilmary Shea, LL.D., was born in New York in 1824. He is 

the author of a number of works of great merit, but is best known for 

those on American history. 

La Salle descends tire Mississippi. From " The Discovery of the Great 
West. " Parkman 43 

Settlement of Jamestown. From "The History of the Colony and 
Ancient Dominion of Virginia," Campbell 52 



Selections and Authors. 



Charles Campbell was born in Virfjinia in 1807. His principal publica- 
tion is tlie history from which we make the extract. It is a narrative of 
the events from the discovery and settlement of this country to the sur- 
render of Cornwallis in 1781. It is a work of faithful accuracy. 

The Gold Excitement. From " The Life of Captain John Smith." Hil- 

lard 55 

George S. Hillard, " lawyer, orator, and man of letters," was born in 
Maine in 1808 ; he died in 1879. He was the author of " Six Months in 
Italy," a book of great interest, and the " Life and Campaigns of George 
B. McClellan," as well as other works. By educators he was known 
through his series of School Readers. " He was one of the most pol- 
ished writers of New England." 

Marrias;:e of Pocahontas. From " The History of the United States." 

Bancroft 56 

George Bancroft, one of the most eminent of American historians, was 
born in Massai'luisetts in 1800. He early manifested remarkable talent, 
graduating at Harvard College with the highest honors at the age of 
seventeen. Tlie publication of his great work, " The History of the 
United States," was commenced in 1884, and is btill unfinished. " Parts 
of it may be reckoned among the most splendid in all historical litera- 
ture." Mr. Bancroft has filled several important political offices, having 
been Secretary of the Navy under President Polk, and having, as Minis- 
ter-Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, represented the United States from 
1846 to 1849. 

The Pilgrims in England. From " The Life of John of Barneveld." 

Motley 61 

John Lothrop Motley, the eminent historian, was born in Massachusetts 
in 1814. His " Rise of tlie Dutch Republic," " The History of the United 
Netherlands," and "Life of John of Barneveld " are among the ablest 
contributions to American literature. " His histories are, in some 
degree, epics. The same high, chivalrous tone which rings through 
them has been heard in every crisis of his public career." He was 
Minister to Russia, and afterward to England. At the time of his death 
(1877) he was engaged in writing a history of the " Thirty Years' War." 

Embarkation of the Pilgrims. From " The New England History. " 

?:moit 63 

Charles W. Elliott, descended from the pious and learned John Eliot, 
" the Apostle to the Indians," was born in Connecticut in 1817. One of 
his best books is " St. Domingo : its Revolution and its Hero, Toussaint 
L'Ouverture." 



Selections and Authors. xi 



Settlement of Plymouth. From "The History of New England." 

Palfrey 64 

John Gorham Palfrey was born In Boston in 1796, and educated in Har- 
vard University, in which institution he was afterward appointed Pro- 
fessor of Sacred Literature. His lectures on the " Evidences of Chris- 
tianity" and on the " Hebrew Scriptures," as well as his numerous 
literary, historical, and political discourses, have been highly com- 
mended. His great work, the " History of New England," the first 
volume of which was published in 1858, has been universally approved 
and admired for its thorough appreciation of the Puritan character, its 
accuracy of statement, and the purity and dignity of its style. 

The (jJreat Aim of the Pilgrims. From an Oration. Webster 67 

Daniel "Webster, the celebrated American statesman and orator, was 
born in New Hampshire in 1783. After graduating from Dartmouth 
College, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1805. In 1813 
he became a representative in Congress, and from that time until his 
death, in 1852, was almost uninterruptedly in the public service, as a 
member of Congress or a cabinet ofBcer. In 1842, while Secretary of 
State, under President Tyler, he negotiated the treaty with England, by 
which the north-eastern boundary question was settled. His great 
orations may, it has been thought, claim a favorable comparison with 
even the most brilliant of ancient times. 

Hooker's Emigration. From "The History of Connecticut." Hol- 

lister 69 

G. H, HoUister. — Besides the above and other valuable works, he was 

the author of "Mount Hope; or, Philip, King of the Wampanoags," an 

historical romance of very great merit. 

A Sabbath in New Haven. From " Historical Discourses." Bacon.. 70 
Leonard Bacon, D.D., a "distinguished champion of New England Con- 
gregationalism," was born in Michigan in 1802. He has written several 
books and contributed largely to periodicals. Since 1825 he has been 
the pastor of a church in New Haven, Ct. 

Williams's Flight to Rhode Island. From " The History of Rhode 
Island." Arnold 7 72 

Samuel Greene Arnold was born in Rhode Island in 1821. Besides the 
above valuable work, he has written numerous magazine articles, 
delivered many addresses of great merit, and held several eminent civil 
positions. 

Union of New England Colonies. From " The History of Connecticut." 
Trumbull , , 74 



xii Selections and Authors. 



Benjamin Trumbull, D.D., was born in Connecticut in 1735. He served 
in the Revolutionary war both as a chaplain and a soldier. Died in 1820. 

Persecution <»ftho Quakers. From " True Stories." Eaiothorne... 75 
Nathaniel Hawthorn, " for years one of the greatest modern masters of 
English prose," was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His numer- 
ous writings show fine culture and great originality of genius. "The 
Scarlet Letter," as a highly-wrought fiction, composed witli the most 
artistic finish, has no superior in the language. The most noted of his 
other works are "Mosses from an Old Manse," the " House of the Seven 
Gables," "Twice-told Tales," and the " Marble Faun," all of wliich are 
compositions of distinguished merit. He also wrote many educational 
works, in which he displayed a happy facility in adapting the style and 
treatment to the capacity of young minds. Ilis death occurred in 1864. 

Storming of the Narragansett Fort. From " The History of New 
England." Palfrey 77 

Death of Philip. From " The Sketch Book." Ircing 77 

Witclicraft in Europe. From " Anecdotes of Early Social History." 

Everett 79 

Edward Everett, the celebrated orator and statesman, was born in 
Massachusetts in 1794, and died in 1864. His speeches were remarkable 
for their elaborate finish, peculiar elegance of style, and justness of 
sentiment; while his delivery was exceedingly dignified and graceful. 
Mr. Everett was for ten years a member of Congress, and for four suc- 
cessive years Governor of Massachusetts. He was also Secretary of 
State, and Minister to the Court of Great Britain. 

The Half'Moon ascending the Hudson. From " The History of New 

York." Brodhead 80 

John R. Brodhead was born in Pennsylvania in 1814 ; was Secnstary of 
Legation at the Hague in 18o9, and sulisequently agent of the State of 
New York to procure historical documents in Europe. In 1846 he was 
appointed Secretary of Legation, under George Bancroft, at the Court of 
England. His principal literary work is " The History of the State of 
New York" — a performance of great merit and research. He died in 
1873. 

Coniniencenient of Maryland Colonization. From " The History of the 
United Stales." Bancroft 88 

The Swedes in Delaware. From " Aerelius's History of New Sweden," 
translated froni the Swedish by W. M. EcynoUh 93 



Selections and AtitJiors. xiii 



Peiin's Great Treaty. From ''The Life of William Penn." Janney. 94 
Samuel M. Janney, a pbilantLropist and Friend (Quaker), was born in 
Virginia in 1801. He is the author of " The Country School House" 
(poem), "Conversations on Religious Subjects," "Life of Penn," "Life 
of Fox," " History of the Frieuds," and other works. " His style is easy, 
flowing, and yet sententious." 

The Huguenots in Carolina. From " The Pioneers of France in the 
New World." Parkman 96 

The Iroquois or, Five Nations. From " The Jesuits in North America." 
Parkman 103 

Washington's Return from the French Forts. From " The Life of 
Washington. " Irving 104 

Expulsion of the Acadians. From "True Stories." Hawthorne. . .105 

Capture of (Quebec. From " The Life of Washington." Lossing. . .108 
Benson J. Lossing, writer and artist, chiefly distinguished for his efforts 
to illustrate and popularize the history of the United States. For this 
purpose his " Field-Book of the Revolution" and his " Field- Book of the 
War of 1812" are most admirable and valuable works. Mr. Lossing is 
the author of many other works in American history of no inconsiderable 
merit. 

Panl Revere's Ride. From an oration delivered at Concord, April 19, 

1875. Curtis 133 

George William Curtis, " author and orator," was born in Rhode Island 
in 1834. His principal works are "Nile Notes of a Howadji," '.'The 
Howadji in Syria," " Lotos Eating," and " The Potiphar Papers," "open- 
ing," in this last work, "a new vein of satiric fiction." The " great ex- 
tent of his popularity is due to his papers in Ilmyer's Magazine." His 
style is clear and terse. 

Lexington and Concord. From "The History of the United States." 
Bancroft 133 

Battle of Bunker Hill. From "History of the Siege of Boston." 

FrotJiingliam 135 

Richard Frothingham, Jr., historian and journalist, was born in Massa- 
chusetts in 1813. His principal works are the " History of Charlestown," 
"Life of Joseph Warren," " Rise of the Republic," and the " Siege of 
Boston." Of the " Siege" Bancroft pays : " It is the best of our mono- 
graphs that I have seen." 



xiv Selections and Authors. 



The Necessity of the War. From a Speecli in the Virginia Convention, 
1775. Patrick Uenrij 130 

Washington chosen Commander-in-Chief. From " The Life of Wash- 
ington." Sparks 189 

Tared Sparks, LL.D., was born in Connecticut in 1789. His father was 
a farnitr. He was apprenticed to a carpenter, but his love of books 
overcame all obstacles, and through the assistance of friends he was en- 
abled to prepare for admission into Harvard College, from which he 
graduated in 1815. He subsequently became a Unitarian clergyman, 
and wrote several works on theological subjects. His fame, however, 
depends upon hi.s publications in relation to Washington and the history 
of the Revolution, for which he will ever receive the gratitude of pos- 
terity. His "American Biography" includes the life of sixty eminent per- 
sonages, eight of which were written by the editor himself. Mr. Sparks 
died at Cambridge in 1866. 

Death of Montgomery. From " The Life of Aaron Burr." Parton. 1^1 
James Parton was born in England in 1832, but has resided in the 
United States since 1836. " The various biographies written by him — 
namely, the lives of Greeley, Burr, Jackson, Franklin, and Jefferson — 
have the great merit of being entertaining, while they rest on a solid 
basis of facts which the writer has diligently explored. His love of i)ar- 
adox, though a fault, certainly gives piquancy to his lucid narrative." 

Expedition against Charleston. From " Life and Times of Francis 

Marion. " Simms 143 

Wm. Gilmore Simms, LL.D., " the most prolific of American historical 
novelists," was born in South Carolina in 1806. His productions in 
poetry, romance, history, biography, and criticism are numerous. The 
best of his works of fiction are published in seventeen volumes, under 
the title of " Revolutionary and Border Romances of the South." His 
" descriptions are bold and graphic." His death occurred in 1870. 

The Fathers of the Declaration. From an oration, July 4, 1876. 

Starrs 145 

Richard Salter Storrs, D.D., was born in Massachusetts in 1831, de- 
scended from a long line of ministers. He has contributed much to 
current literature, and his published sermons, orations, and addresses 
are marked by great vigor and scholarship. He has been president of 
" The Long Island Historical Society" a number of years. 

Execntion of Nathan Hale. From " The Life of Captain Nathan Hale." 
J. W. Stuart 149 



Selections and Autliors. xv 



Lafayette Joins the Americans. Sprague 152 

Charles Sprague was born in Massachusetts in 1791 ; died in 1875. His 
writings were mostly poetical ; Whipple says : " His prologues are the 
best which have been written since the time of Pope." He has been 
styled " the American Pope, because of his terseness, his finished ele- 
gance, his regularity of metre, and his nervous point." 

Thc! Army at Valley Forge. From " Historic Americans." ParTcer.A^5 
Theodore Parker was born in Massachusetts in 1810, graduated at the 
theological school in Cambridge, and settled in Roxbury, as minister of 
a Unitarian church. He subsequently became distinguished for the flu- 
ency and eloquence of his public lectures and addresses, in which he 
displayed a remarkable pungency of satire, and an intense humanitarian 
spirit. His anti-slavery efforts were particularly vigorous and persistent. 
The boldness with which he advanced his peculiar views in religion 
gave great offense to many, and his theological writings have drawn 
upon him considerable bitter animadversion and censure. He was un- 
doubtedly a man of great intellectual power, and a most kindly and 
philanthropic spirit. His death occurred at Florence, Italy, in 1860. 

The Dark Hour at Valley Forge. From "Life of General Greene." 

Greene 155 

George Washington Greene, born in Rhode Island in 1811, a grandson 
of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary celebrity, is the author of 
a " Life of General Greene," first published as a portion of " Sparks's 
American Biography," subsequently much enlarged. He has also pub- 
lished several historical and geographical works, as well as an edition 
of Addison's works, and contributed many papers on historical and 
critical subjects to the North American Review, KnicTcerhocker Magazine, 
etc. 

Arnold's Stratagem to relieve Fort Schuyler. From "The Life of 
Washington." Irving 157 

Franklin at the French Court. From " The History of the United 
States." Bancroft 100 

Massacre of Wyoming. From " The History of W^yoming." Stone.. \QZ 
William L. Stone, a journalist and author of high rank. He was born 
in New York, in 1793, commenced life as a printer, and subsequently 
edited journals in Hudsmi, Albany, and Hartford. In 1821 he became 
editor of the Commercial Advertiser, of New York City, and thus con- 
tinued till his death in 1844. His published works are quite numerous, 
and are highly valued for their historical accuracy and research, as 
well as for the elegance of their style. Among them uuiy bo particu- 



xvi Selections and JiiitJwrs. 



larly mentioned "Life of Joseph Brant, including the Border Wars of 
the American Revolution," "Life and Times of Red Jacket," "Letters 
on Freemasonry," and "Tale's and Sketches." In personal character 
he was genial and benevolent, kind and considerate to all, giving his 
warm and earnest support to every religious and philanthropic object. 

Slarion. Sumter, and Pickens. From "Memoirs, etc." Lee 16(5 

Henry Lee was born in Virginia in 1756. He was known in the Revo- 
lutionary war as " Lighthorse Harry," and the partisan corps of which 
he was commander was known as "Lee's Legion." Li his celebrated 
eulogy of Washington, prepared by direction of Congress, occurred the 
words, "First in war, first in peace, sui 1 (irst in the hearts of his coun- 
trymen." His " Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department" were 
written in 1809, while he was in confinement for deTjt. He died in 1818. 

Arrest of Andre. From "The Life of W^ishington." Irvinff.. ..170 

Surrender of Cornwallis. From " Military Journal of the Revolution." 

Tharhcr 175 

James Thacher, M.D., was bona in Massachusetts in 1754. He served 

as surgeon in the Revolutionary war, and was present at many of the 

principal battles. He was the author of several medical works of great 

merit. 

Washington's Farewell Address to his Officers. Marshall 177 

The Federalist, From the Life and Times of Madison. Rites 179 

William C. Eives was born in Virginia in 1793 ; died in 1868. He 
was a Fuited States Senator, Minister to France, and filled other impor- 
tant civil positions. He was the author of "Life of John Hampden," 
" Discourses on the Uses and Importance of History," and other works. 

The First Political Parties. From ' History of the Hartford Conven- 
tion." Biri'/ht 179 

Theodore Dwight, an able journalist and brilliant political writer, was 

born in Massachusetts in 1764. He was a leader of the Federal party, 

and the secretary of the Hartford Convention. He wrote " The Life and 

Character of Thomas Jefferson." 

Inauguration of Washington. From " The History of the United States." 

llildreth 18jj 

Richard Hildreth, a distinguished writer and journalist. His chief 
work is a " History of the United States," which is especially valuable 
for its accuracy and directness of statement, its dignified but uni)re- 
tending style, and the fullness of its information in regard to the 



Selections and Authors. 



xvu 



political history of the country. "As a book of reference it still remains 
as the best in our catalogue of works on American history." Born in 
Massachusetts in 1807 ; died in Florence, Italy, in 1865. 

Migration to the West. Audubon 188 

John James Audubon, '• the ornithologist," of whom Professor Wilson 
said: "He is tlie greatest artist in his own walk that ever lived." 
"Audubon's works," says Cuvier, "are the most splendid monuments 
which art has erected in honor of ornithology." The price of his great 
work, " The Birds of America," was $1000. Every object in it is of tbe 
size of life. "Audubon has indisputable claims to a respectable rank as 
a man of letters. Some of his written pictures of birds, so graceful, 
clearly defined, and brilliantly colored, are scarcely inferior to the pro- 
ductions of his pencil." He was born in Louisiana. His death occurred 
in 1851. 

John Jay. From " The First Century of the Republic." Whipple. .186 
Edwin P. Whipple, "one of our most brilliant writers," was born in 
Massachusetts in 1819. He is the author of "Essays and Reviews," 
"The Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," and other works. 

Invention of the Cot!ou-g"in. From "The American Conflict." 

Greeley 187 

Horace Greeley, one of the most distinguished journalists of this coun- 
try, was born in New Hampshire, in 1811, and commenced life as a 
printer. The JVew York Tribune was commenced by him in 1841. 
Mr. Greeley's style is vigorous and pungent, and his writings abound 
in useful information, addressed to the practical common-sense of the 
reader. His most extensive work is the "American Conflict," in which 
he gives, with considerable fullness, the events of that great struggle 
between the two sections of the country, together with the political and 
social causes that led to it. He died in 1872. (S.ee p. 299.) 

Washington's Farewell Address. Washington 190 

Death of Washington. From "The Life of Washington." Mar- 
shall 193 

Character of Wasliington. From ' Orations and Speeches of Edward 
Everett. Everett" 193 

Fulton's First Steamboat. From a discourse delivered in 1829. 

Story 301 

Joseph Story, LL.D., an eminent jurist, was born in Massachusetts in 
1779. He was admitted to the bar in 1801, served several years as a 
member of the legislature of his native State, and in 1811 was appointed 
by President Madison associate justice of the Supreme Court, which 



xviii Selections and Authors. 



oflBce lie continued to fill till his deatli, in 1845. His legal treatises 
liave had a very high reputation both in this country and England. 
Lord Brougham pronounced bim " the first jurist living." His miscel- 
laneous writings are numerous. 

Purchase of Loiiislaua. From an address. Everett 196 

How the Clermont was regarded. From "The Life of Robert Fulton." 
C. D. Colden 203 

Peri'3''s Victory, From " The Second War between England and the 

United States." Ileadley 209 

Joel Tyler Headley, one of the most popular writers of the time, was 
born in Delaware County, New York, In 1814. His principal historical 
works are "Napoleon and his Marshals," "Washington and his Gene- 
rals," "Life of Oliver Cromwell," and "History of the Second War 
between England and the United States." These works are chiefly 
distinguished for their melodramatic descriptions and brilliancy of 
style, but in respect to accuracy of statement have been sharply criti- 
cised. Mr. Headley has also published many other works of considerable 
literary excellence. 

The Hartford Convention. From "Sketches of American Policy." 

Webster 215 

Noah Webster, LL.D., the author of the "American Dictionary," was 
born in Connecticut in 1758, and graduated with considerable honor at 
Yale College, in 1778. He was at first a school-teacher at Goshen, in 
New York, and while thus engaged, compiled his " Spelling Book," 
which he published at Hartford in 1783. He soon afterward published 
an "English Grammar." The spelling book has probably been the 
most widely circulated book ever published in this country. In 1784 he 
published " Sketches of American Policy," a political work of consid- 
erable interest and merit. In 1793 he started a daily paper in New 
York, which still continues to be published as the Commercial Advertiser. 
He commenced the Dictionary in 1807, and spent twenty years in its 
compilation. He died in 1843. 

How the News of Peace was received. Goodrich 216 

Samuel Griswold Goodrich, world-wide known under the assumed name 
of Peter Parley, was born in Connecticut in 1793. His juvenile books, 
more than one hundred in number, comprise geographies, histories, 
travels, stories, and illustralions of the arts and sciences. " For more 
than twenty years his delightful compositions have instructed and 
edified children in both hemispheres." He died in 1860. 



Selections and Authors. xix 



War with Algiers. From "The History of the United States." Ilil- 
dreth 216 

Treaty with Algiers. From " History of the Navy of the United States." 

Cooper 217 

James Fennimore Cooper, the distinguished American novelist, was born 
in 1789. At the age of sixteen he entered the navy as a midshipman, 
and followed the life of a sailor for six years. His writings are very 
numerous, including the " Leather Stocking Tales" and other novels, 
and the " History of the Navy of the United States." In his description 
of the sea and the various incidents of a sailor's life, as well as of the 
Indians and their savage manners, no author can claim any comparison 
with Cooper. His death occurred in 1851. 

Death of Adams and Jefferson. From " Life and Public Services of 

John Quincy Adams." Seward 223 

William H. Seward, an eminent statesman, was born in New York in 

1801. His writings, and many of his public orations, fill several volumes. 

While holding the office of Secretary of State in Lincoln's cabinet, he 

was attacked and seriously injured, on the night of the assassination of 

Lincoln, by one of the conspirators. He died in 1872. 

The Magnetic Telegraph. From "Public Men and Events." Sar- 
gent 236 

Nathan Sargent, a political writer known under the nam de plume of 

Oliver Oldschool. Born in Vermont in 1794; died in 1875. 

American Conquest of Mexico. From " History of the Mexican War." 

Mansfield 241 

Edward D. Mansfield was born in 1801, and graduated at the United 

States Military Academy, at West Point, in 1819. He was the author of 

several works, chief among which are the " Life of General Scott" and 

the " History of the Mexican War." 

Mining Life in California. From " History of California." Frankliji 
Tuthill, M.D 246 

The Mormons. From " History of the United States." J. H. Pattoi.. 248 
Treaty with Japan. J. E. Patton 250 

Battle of the Iron Ships. From " The Lost Cause." Pollard 269 

Edward A. Pollard was formerly editor of the Richmond Examiner. 
He published various works in relation to the Civil War, written from 
a Southern standpoint. In 1866 appeared "The Lost Cause: a New 
Southern History of the War of the Confederates ; " and subsequently 



XX Selections and Authors. 



otlier works on topics connected with the same general subject. Mr. 
Pollard's style is copious and vii^orous ; and the earnestness with which 
he writes makes his works interesting to all classes of readers. 

Confederate Money. From "A Rebel's Recollections." George Gary 
Eggleston 274 

Misapplication of Means. From "A Narrative of Military Events, etc." 

Joh/isto/i 276 

Joseph E. Johnston was born in Virginia in 1807. He graduatetl at 
West Point, served iu the Semiu(de War and in tlie Mexican War, and 
was a Confederate general iu the great Civil War. (See p. 307.) 

Obligation to the Patriot Dead. Abraham Lincoln. . , 278 

Organizations of Mercy. From " History of the American Civil War." 

Draper 279 

John W. Draper, M.D., LL.D., was born in England in 1811; came to 
the United States iu 1833. Besides the above and many valuable 
treatises on chemistry, physiology, and mixed mathematics, he is the 
author of a " History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," pro- 
nounced by Whipple " comprehensive iu scope, brilliant in style, and 
bold iu siieculation." 

Evacnatiou of Richmond. From "A Southern History of the War." 
Pollard 291 

Miracles of the War. From "History of the American Civil U'ar." 
Draper 295 



CONTENTS. 



Section I. Discoveries and Explorations. 

First Discovery of America ; The Northmen's discoveries (15) ; Co- 
lumbus (18) ; India — the route to it ; Idea and plan of Columbus (19) 
Landing of Columbus in the New World (31) ; Other Discoveries of 
Columbus (33) ; Return of Columbus to Spain (33) ; The Indians (35) ; 
The Mound-builders (37) ; Were the Indians the Mound-builders? 
English Discoveries (39) ; Origin of the name America ; The new lands 
not India (30) ; The first voyage around the earth (31) ; Discovery of 
Florida (33) ; De Soto's Expedition (34) ; Discovery of the Mississippi 
(35) ; Burial of De Soto (30) ; Drake's Voyage around the world (37) ; 
Other expeditions by the English (40) ; Explorations by the French ; 
Marquette on the Mississippi (41) ; La Salle descends the Mississippi 
(43) ; How the lands were disposed of (47) . Summary ; Claims (48) ; 
Topical Review (49) ; Model for a written exercise (50). 

Section II. The Colonial Period. 

Virginia. — Settlement of Jamestown (53) ; Character of the Colo- 
nists (54) ; The gold excitement ; The starving time (55) ; Lord Dela- 
ware's administration ; Marriage of Pocahontas (56) ; Tobacco (57) ; 
Importation of wives (58) ; Bacon's Rebellion (59). 

New England. — Early explorations (59) ; First English settlement in 
Maine (GO) ; The Great Patent ; Puritans and Pilgrims ; The Pilgrims 
in England (61) ; The Pilgrims in Holland (63) The Embarkation (63) ; 
Settlement of Plymouth (64) ; The first winter at Plymouth (66) ; Great 
aim of the Pilgrims ; Settlement of New Hampshire (67) ; Massachu- 
setts Bay Colony ; Settlement of Boston (68) ; Settlement of Connecti- 
cut ; Hooker's emigration (69) ; PequoJ War ; New Haven Colony ; 
A Sabbath in New Haven (70) ; The founder of Rhode Island ; His 
flight to Rhode Island (73) ; Early history of Rhode Island (73) ; Union 
of New England Colonies (74) ; Persecution of the Quakers (75) ; King 
Philip's War (76) ; Storming of the Narragansett Fort ; Death of 
Philip (77) ; Salem Witchcraft (78) ; Witchcraft in Europe (79). 

New York and New Jersey. — Discovery of the Hudson river; The 
Half-Moon ascends the Hudson (80) ; The first settlement (83) ; Growth 
of the colony (83) ; The English take New Netherlands (85) ; New 
Jersey (86). 

Maryland. — Lord Baltimore (87) ; Commencement of colonization (88) ; 
Clayborne's Claims ; Civil war (90). 



xxii Contents. 



Pennsylvania and Delaware. — William Penn (91) ; The Swedes in 
Delaware (92) ; Dutch Claim — Conquest by Stuyvesant (93) ; Delaware 
united to Pennsylvania (94) ; Peun's great treaty (94). 

North and South Carolina. — The Huguenots in Carolina (96) ; Albe- 
marle and Clarendon colonies ; The Grand Model ; Division of the 
province (98). 

Georgia. — Motives for the settlement ; Settlement of Savannah (99) ; 
Wesley and Whitefield (100). 

European Wars that affected the Colonies. — King William's, Queen 
Anne's, and King George's (101) ; The Iroquois (102). 

The French and Indian War.— The French Claim (102) ; The English 
Claim ; Washington's Mission (108), his expedition (105) ; Expulsion 
of the Acadians ; Braddock's Defeat (106) ; Capture of Quebec (108). 

Condition of the Colonies. — Population (112); Government; Industry 
(113) ; Fisheries ; Printing (115) ; Education and Schools (116) ; Man- 
ners and Customs (117) ; Money (119). Summary by Colonies (120): 
General Summary (123) ; Topical Review (124). 

Section III. The Revolutionary Period. 

Causes of the war (125) ; The Stamp Act (126) ; Boston Massacre 
(127) ; Boston Tea Party (128) ; First Continental Congress (130) ; Paul 
Revere's Ride (132) ; Lexington and Concord (133) ; Capture of Ticon- 
deroga ; Battle of Bunker Hill (135) ; Necessity of the War ; Washing- 
ton chosen Commander-in-Chief (139) ; Expedition against Canada (140) ; 
Death of Montgomery (141) ; The British evacuate Boston ; Expedition 
against Charleston (142) ; Birth of the Nation (144) ; The fathers of the 
Declaration (145) ; Battle of Long Island ; Retreat of Washington (148) ; 
Execution of Hale (149) ; Battle of Trenton (150) ; Battle of Princeton ; 
Lafayette joins the Americans (152); Expedition against Philadelphia 
(153) ; Battle of Germantown (154) ; The Army at Valley Forge ; The 
Dark Hour at Valley Forge (155) ; Burgoyne's invasion (156) ; Arnold 
relieves Fort Schuyler (157) ; Battle of Bennington ; Foes of ihe pa- 
triots (158) ; Surrender of Burgoyne (159) ; Franklin at the French 
Court (160); Evacuation of Philadelphia (161); Battle of Monmouth 
(162) ; Massacre of Wyoming (163) ; Events in the South (164) ; Storm- 
ing of Stony Point ; Paul Jones's victory (165) ; Loss of Charleston 
(166) ; Marion, Sumter, and Pickens ; Battle of Camden (167) ; Treason 
of Arnold (169) ; Arrest of Andre (170) ; Fate of Andre (171) ; Battle of 
the Cowpens (172) ; Cornwallis pursues Morgan ; Battles of Guilford 
Court House and Eutaw Springs (173) ; Arnold's expedition against 
Virginia ; Siege of Yorktown (174) ; Surrender of Cornwallis (175) ; 
Condition of the country (170) ; Washington's farewell to his officers; 
Resigns his command (177) ; Adoption of the Constitution (178) ; The 



Contents. xxiii 



Federalist ; First political parties (179) ; Summary (180) ; Topical 
Review (181). 

Section IV. The Constitutional Period. 

"Washington's Administration. — His inauguration (183) ; First Meas- 
ures ; Admission of Vermont (184) ; Indian war ; Foreign affairs (185) ; 
John Jay (186) ; Invention of the cotton-gin (187) ; Migration to the 
West (188) ; Admission of Kentucky and Tennessee ; Washington's 
Farewell Address (190). 

John Adams's Administration. — His inauguration (191) ; Hostilities of 
France ; Death of Washington (192) ; Character of Washington (193). 

Jefferson's Administration. — His inauguration ; Admission of Ohio 
(195) ; Purchase of Louisiana (196) ; War with the Barbary States (198) ; 
Exploit of Decatur (199) ; Death of Hamilton (200) ; Trial of Burr ; 
Fulton's first steamboat (201) ; How the Clermont was regarded ; 
British aggressions (203) ; The embargo (205). 

Madison's Administration. — War declared against Great Britain ; 
Hull's invasion of Canada ; Victories on the ocean (206) ; Capture of 
the Guerriere (207) ; " Don't give up the ship !" (208) ; Perry's victory 
(209) ; Harrison's victory (211) ; Brown's invasion of Canada (212) 
Plattsburg and Lake Champlain (213) ; Attack on Baltimore (213) 
New Orleans saved (214) ; Hartford Convention (215) ; End of the war 
How the news was received ; War with Algiers (216) ; Admission of 
Louisiana and Indiana (218). 

Monroe's Administration. — The Seminole war and Florida (219) ; 
Admission of Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, and Maine ; The Missouri 
Compromise (220) ; Lafayette's visit (221). 

John Quincy Adams's Administration. — The 10th national election 
(222) ; Death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (223) ;. The tariff 
(224) ; Internal improvements (225) ; Canals (226). 

Jackson's Administration — The 11th national election (226) ; Rotation 
in office ; Bank of the United States (227) ; Nullification (228) ; Admis- 
sion of Arkansas and Michigan (229). 

Van Buren's Administration. — The- 13th national election (230) . 
Panic of 1837 ; Slavery agitation (231) : Railroads ; Steam navigation 
(233). 

Harrison and Tyler's Administrations. — The 14th national election 
(233) ; Death of Harrison (235) ; Annexation of Texas ; The magnetic 
telegraph (236). 

Polk's Administration. — The 15th national election (237) ; War with 
Mexico ; Taylor's campaign (238) ; Conquest of New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia (239) ; Scott's campaign (240) ; American conquest of Mexico 
(241) ; Treaty of peace (242) ; Discovery of gold in California (243) ; 
Admission of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin (244). 



xxir Contents. 



Taylor's Administration. — The Ifitli national plection (244) ; Mining 
life in California {■24(!) ; Slavery agitation revived (247). 

Fillmore's Administration. — The Compromise of 18.")0 (247) ; The 
IMormons ("248). 

Pierce's Administration. — liepeal of the Missouri Compromise (249) ; 
Civil war in Kansas ; Treaty with Japan (2.50). Summary (2.'31); Topi- 
cal review (i.jS). 

Buchanan's Administration. — The 18th National Election ; John 
Brown's raid (2.'Jo) ; Condition of the country in 1860 (254) ; Secession 
(255) ; Occupation of Fort Sumter ; the Southern Confederacy (256) ; 
Admission of Minnesota, Oregon, and Kan.«as (257.) 

Lincoln's Administration. — His inauguration ; Fall of Fort Sumter 
(258) ; Battle of Bull Hun (2G1) ; The war in Mis.souri (2G2) ; Naval oy- 
erations (2G3) ; Confederate privateers ; Tlie Trent affair (204) ; Union 
successes (20.")) ; Battle of Slilloh ; Taking of New Orleans (2GG) ; At- 
tack of the Virginia (2G8) ; Battle of the iron ships (20!)) ; Peninsula 
campaign (270) ; Lee's first invasion of the North (272) ; Burnside's 
campaign ; Confederate money (274) ; Misapplication of means ; Eman- 
cipation ; Hooker's cainiaign (27G) ; Lee's second invasion ; Battle of 
Gettysburg (277) ; Obligation to the patriot dead (278) ; Organizations 
of mercy (279) ; The Mississippi opened (280) ; Draft riot in New York 
(281); The war in Tennessee and Georgia (282); West Virginia and 
Nevada (28.j) ; Red river expedition (284) ; Sherman's campaign (285); 
Battle of Nashville; Sherman's march to the sea (286) ; Grant's cam- 
'paign in Virginia (287) ; The Siienandoah valley (288) ; Achievements 
of the navy (289) ; Sherman's campaign of 1805(290); Evacuation of 
Richmond (291) ; Surrender of Lee and Johnston ; Assassination of 
Lincoln (29:)) ; Cost of the war (294) ; Miracles of the war (295). 

Johnson's Administration. — Lincoln's funeral (295) ; Reconstruction 
(296) ; Johnson's impeaciiment (296) ; Nebraska and Alaska (297). 

Grant's Administration. — The Alabama Claims (298) ; The nation's 
centennial ; Achuis.sion of Colorado ; The century of progress (300). 
Summary (;lO."i) ; Topical revi(>w (306). 

Hayes's Administration. — His inauguration ; Important events (308). 

Acquisition of Territory ... 310 

The States, origin of their names and their pet names 311 

Table of the Presidents and Settlement of the States 316 



APPENDIX. 

Declaration of Independence 1 

Constitution of the United States 5 



History of the United States. 



SECTION I. 



Discoveries and Explorations. 

1. Who first discovered America ? This question lias been 
discussed by many able writers, but no one thus far has so 
answered it as to carry conviction to the minds of all persons. 
It has been claimed by some of these writers that 
hundreds of years before the time of Columbus, Discovery of 
navigators from countries on the east a'nd north 

of the Mediterranean sea sailed to the Atlantic ocean, and 
then were driven by tempests across the ocean to the continent 
beyond. Other writers have contended that the honor of the 
discovery belongs to Wales. Again, we have the tradition of 
Irishmen having found a beautiful country far to the west of 
their island, on which they lived for a long time. These are 
not the only claims that have been put forth ; but, among 
tliem all, that which has the best evidence to sustain it is in be- 
half of the people called Scan-di-na'-vi-ans, who occupied the 
region comprising the countries of ISTorway, Sweden, and 
Denmark. They were also called Northmen or Norsemen. 

2. " The restless activity and adventurous spirit of the Scan- 
dinavians were not confined to the Baltic sea. They boldly 
roamed over the great northern and western oceans, without 
chart or compass, in (juest of adventures and plun- 
der, or to find out new lands where they might Northmen's 

- ,,1 , 1 , mi • Discoveries, 

form settlements more or less permanent, iheir 

navigators discovered many islands north of Scotland. At 

a very early period, a Norwegian sea-rover was driven by a 

storm quite to the Arctic Circle, until he descried a large 



16 Discoveries and Explorations. 1001 

country which, from its aspect, he called Snce'-land, or the 
land of snow, but which has been since more ajipropriately 
named Iceland (8G1). 

3. About a century after, Torwald, a jarl (petty king) of 
Norway, who had been exiled from his native land for having 
slain liis enemy, retired to that island with his son Er'-ik, sur- 
named Eandi, or the Eed. After the death of his father, 
Erik was compelled to leave Iceland for the same reason 
which had banished Torwald from Norway. Seeking a new 
asylum, he took ship, and directed his course towards tlie 
south-west. He found a small island in a strait, and passed 
the winter there. In the spring he explored the main-land, 
and, finding it covered with a delightful verdure, he called it 
Greenland. 

4. There was formerly, say the ancient sagas, a man of Nor- 
way wlio navigated from one country to another with his son 
Bjarne {hydr'-ne), and generally spent the winters in Norway. 
It happened, once on a time, that they were sejiaratcd from 
each other, and Bjarne sought his father in Norway, but not 
finding him there he learnt that he was gone to the newly- 
discovered country of Greenland. Bjarne resolved to seek 
and find out his father wherever he might be, and for this 
purpose set sail for Greenland, directing himself by the obser- 
vation of the stars and by what others had told him of the 
situation of the land. 

5. The three first days he was carried to the west, but after- 
wards the Avind, changing, blew with violence from the north, 
and drove him southwardly for several days. He at last 
descried a flat country covered with Avood, tlie ai)pearance of 
which was so different from tliat of Greenland, as it had been 
described to him, tluit he would not go on shore, but made 
sail to the north-west. In this course he saw an island at a 
distance, but continued his voyage, and arrived safely in 
Greenland, where he found his father (1001). 

6. In the following summer, Bjarne made another voyage 
to Norway, where he was hos})itably received by Erik, a dis- 



1002 Tlie NortJinieii' s Dlscoderies. 17 

tinguished jarl of that country. The jarl, to whom he related 
his adventures, rej)roached him for not having explored the 
new land towards which he had been accidentally driven. 
Bjarne having returned to his father in Greenland, there was 
much talk among the settlers of jDursuing his discovery. The 
restless, adventurous spirit of Leif {life), son of Erik the Red, 
was excited to emulate the fame his father had acquired by 
the discovery of Greenland. He purchased Bjarne's ship, 
and manned it with thirty-five men. Leif then requested his 
father to become the commander of the enterprise. Erik at 
first declined, on account of the increasing infirmities of his 
old age. He was, however, at last persuaded by his son to 
embark ; but as he was going down to the vessel on horseback 
his horse stumbled, which Erik received as an evil omen for 
his undertaking. ' I do not believe, ' said he, ' that it is 
given to me to discover any more lands, and here will I 
abide.' Erik returned to his house, and Leif set sail with 
his thirty-five companions, among whom was one of his 
father's servants, a native of the south-countries, named 
Tyrker {tur'-hei'), probably a German. 

7. They first discovered what they supposed to be one of 
the countries seen by Bjarne, the coast of which was a fiat, 
stony land, and the background crowned with lofty moun- 
tains covered with ice and snow. Pursuing their v^oyage 
further south, they now came to another coast, also flat, cov- 
ered with thick wood, and the shores of white sand gradually 
sloping toward the sea. Here they cast anchor and made a 
landing. Pursuing their voyage with a north-east wind for 
two days and nights, they discovered a third land, the north- 
ern coast of which was sheltered by an island. Here they 
again landed, and found a country, not mountainous, but 
undulating and woody, and abounding with fruits and ber- 
ries delicious to the taste. 

8. From thence they re-embarked and made sail to the 
west to seek a harbor, which they at last found at the mouth 
of a river, where they were swept by the tide into the lake 



18 Discoveries and Explorations. 1003 

from wliicli tlie river issued. They cast anchor, and pitched 
their tents at tliis spot, and found the river and hike full of 
the largest salmon they had ever seen. Finding the climate 
very temperate and the soil fruitful in pasturage, they deter- 
mined to build huts and pass the winter here." 

9. The spot selected, it is supposed, was in the latitude of 
Boston. " It happened one day. soon after their arrival, 
that Tyrker, the German, was missing, and as Leif set a 
great value upon the youth on account of his skill in various 
arts, he sent his followers in search of him in every direction. 
When they at last found him he began to speak to them in 
the Gernum language, with many extravagant signs of joy. 
They at last made out to understand that he had found 
vines bearing wild grapes. He led them to the spot, aud 
they brought to their chief a quantity of tlie grapes which 
they had gathered. Leif, thereupon, named the country 
Vinland." 

10. The Northmen made settlements in Greenland, as 

they had previously done in Iceland ; but these, after a period 

of more than a hundred years, 

perished ; and when Columbus set 

Christopher sail on his eventful voy- 
Columbus. g^gg ij^ 2492^ they were 

entirely forgotten. It is safe to 
say tha^ Columbus had no knowl- 
edge then, or afterward, of a sec- 
ond continent, nor is there any 
evidence that he even supposed ,^ 
there was a second. His object 
was to find a short way to the rich 
country in the south-eastern part chkistci-iiek culumhus. 
of Asia, and the islands near to it, called India, or the Indies. 

11. A Venetian traveler, named Marco Polo,' as well as other 




' The first and most extensive traveller among the Eastern nations was 
]\Iarco Polo, who passed seventeen y^'iU's In the service of Ihe Khan of 
Tartary, d\iriug which he visited the chief countries and cities of Eastern 



Idea and Plan of Columbus. 19 



travelers, had been to India, and brought back to Europe ex- 
citing accounts of the riches to be found there. A consid- 
erable commerce was consequently carried on by india- 
Venice and other cities of Italy with that coun- the route to it. 
try ; but the journey was long and dangerous. Vessels 
sailed through the Mediterranean to the north-east part of 
Africa, where they were unladen, and the goods were carried 
on the backs of camels across the isthmus of Suez, and thence 
again by ship down the Eed sea and through tlie Indian 
ocean to India. Sometimes the goods were carried overland 
through Asia. Desiring to share in this profitable trade, the 
jjeople of Portugal, encouraged and aided by their king, en- 
deavored to find a passage to India — one entirely by water — 
by sailing along the west coast of Africa, and around its 
southern point. ^ 

12. The plan formed by Columbus was very different. 
Believing the earth to be round, he concluded that the short- 
est way to India was across the Atlantic ocean. It is plain 
that while he had a correct idea as to the shape ^^^^ ^^^ 
of the earth, he was mistaken as to its size. Plan of Columbus- 
Various discouragements, too, beset him, but nothing could 
shake his determination. Being too poor to fit out an expe- 
dition at his own expense he applied for aid, it is asserted, 
to his native country, Genoa {je)i'-o-ali) ; then to Portugal. 
In both cases he was unsuccessful. He then turned to Spain, 



Asia, among them .Japan, the existence of which was not previously 
known. He returned to Venice in 1295 ; and subsequently a very inter- 
esting account of his travels was published, which had a wonderful effect 
in encouraging geographical research. 

' " The crown of Portugal was constant in its efforts, through the fif- 
teenth century, to find a passage round the southern point of Africa into 
the Indian Ocean, thougli so timid was the navigation that every fresh 
headland became a formidable barrier ; and it was not till the latter part 
of the century that the adventurous Diaz passed quite round the Stormy 
cape, as he termed it, but which .John the Second (Iving of Portugal), 
with happier augur3% called the cape of Good Hope. Bui; before Vasco 
de Gama had availed himself of this discovery to spread his sails in the 
Indian seas (1497), Spain entered on her glorious career, and sent Colum- 
bus across the western waters." — Prescoit's Conquest of Peru. 



20 



Discooeries and Explorations. 



and during seven years, while his theory and offer were be- 
fore the Spanisli court, he implored and waited, until at last, 
when, in despair, he was in the act of leaving that country 
for France, he was recalled. 




SPANISH CARAVAL IN WHICH COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA. 

(From a drawing attributed to Columbus, and placed in a volume of his letters pub- 
lished in 1494.) 

13. Queen Isabella had become deeply interested in his 
plan, and, " with an enthusiasm worthy of herself," had 
offered to " pledge" her '' jewels to raise the necessary funds." 



1492 Landing of Colnmbiis in tlie New World. 31 

There was, however, no need of the sacrifice. Money was 
advanced from the public treasury, three small vessels were 
fitted out, and with this miniature fleet Columbus set sail 
from Spain, on Friday morning, August the 3d, 1492, and, 
after a voyage of ten weeks — the greatest among voyages 
that ever was made — discovered one of the Bahama islands.^ 

14. " It was on Friday morning, the 12th of October, that 
Columbus beheld the New World. As the day dawned, he 
saw before him a level island, several leagues in extent, and 
covered with trees like a continued orchard. Landing 
Though apparently uncultivated, it was populous, °^ ^n^ife'^^ 
for the inhabitants were seen issuing from all New "World. 
parts of the woods, and running to the shore. They were per- 
fectly naked, and, as they stood gazing at the ships, appeared 
by their attitudes and gestures to be lost in astonishment. 

15. Columbus made signal for the ships to cast anchor, 
and tlie boats to be manned and armed. He entered his own 
boat, richly attired in scarlet, and holding the royal standard ; 
whilst the commanders of the other vessels put off in com- 
pany in their boats, eacli with a banner of the enterprise 
emblazoned with a green cross, having on either side the let- 
ters F. and Y., the initials of the Castilian'^ moharchs, Fer- 
nando (Ferdinand) and Ysabel (Isabella), surmounted by 
crowns. As he approached the shore, Columbus, who was 
disposed for all kinds of agreeable impressions, was delighted 
with the purity and suavity of the atmosphere, the crystal 
transparency of the sea, and the extraordinary beauty of the 
vegetation. He beheld, also, fruits of unknown kinds upon 
the trees which overhung the shores. 



^ " The island where Columbus had thus set his foot was called by 
the natives Guanahani {gmih-ni(h-7i(ih'-ne). It still retains tlie name of 
San Salvador, which he gave to it, though called by the English Cat 
island. ' ' — Irving. 

^ Castile {kns-teeT) was an ancient kingdom or state of Spain. " "When 
the various states were consolidated into one monarchy (1479), the capi- 
tal of Castile l:>ecame the capital of the new empire, and her language 
the language of the court and of literature. " — PrescoU. 



22 Discoveries and Explorations. 1492 

16. On landing, he threw himself on his knees, kissed 
the earth, and returned thanks to God with tears of joy. His 
example was followed by the rest, whose hearts, indeed, over- 
flowed with the same feelings of gratitude. Columbus tlicn 
rising, drew his sword, displayed the royal standard, and 
assembling round him all who had landed, took solemn pos- 
session in the name of the Castilian sovereigns, giving the 
island the name of San Salvador, Having complied with 
the requisite forms and ceremonies, he called upon all present 
to take the oath of obedience to him as admiral and viceroy, 
representing the persons of the sovereigns. 

J 7. The feelings of the crew now burst forth in the most 
extravagant transports. They had recently considered them- 
selves devoted men hurrying forward to destruction ; they 
now looked upon themselves as favorites of fortune, and gave 
themselves uj) to the most unbounded joy. They thronged 
around the admiral with overfloAving zeal, some eml)racing 
him, others kissing his hands. Those who had been most 
mutinous and tvirbulent during the voyage Avere now most 
devoted and enthusiastic. Some begged favors of him as if he 
had already wealth and honors in his gift. Many abject spir- 
its, who had outraged him by their insolence, now crouched 
at liis feet, begging pardon for all the trouble they had caused 
him, and promising the blindest obedience for the future. " 

18. Leaving San Salvador, Columbus soon discovered other 
islands, the largest being Cuba and His-pan-i-o-la ( LittJe 

SiJain).^ As he supposed that all these were out- 
discoveries of lying islands of India, he called the natives In- 
Coiumbus. ^._^^^^^ ,,^j^^ islanders were friendly and gen- 
tle," says Irving, '' and treated the Spaniards with kindness." 

19. Leaving a small colony at Hispaniola, "in the month 
of January, 1493, Columbus embarked for Spain. One of his 
vessels had previously foundered, and another had deserted 



' Hispaniola was afterwards called San Domingo. The name Ilayti 
(hay'-te) was given to it after the French were expelled, in 1803. 



1493 Return of Columbus to Spain. 23 

him ; so that he was left alone to retrace his steps across the 
Atlantic. After a most tempestuous voyage, he was compelled 
to take shelter in the Tagus, sorely against his in- 
clination. He experienced, however, the most of Columbus 
honorable reception from the Portuguese monarch, ° ^*^^' 
John the Second, who did ample justice to the great qualities 
of Columbus, although he had failed to profit by them. After 
a brief delay the admiral (Columbus) resumed his voyage, 
and about noon on the 15th of March entered the harbor of 
Palos (pah'-los), being exactly seven months and eleven days 
since his departure from that port. 

20. Great was the agitation in the little community of 
Palos as they beheld the well-known vessel of the admiral re- 
entering the harbor. Their desponding imaginations had long 
since consigned him to a watery grave. Most of them had 
relatives or friends on board. They thronged immediately 
to the shore to assure themselves with their own eyes of the 
truth of their return. "When they beheld their faces once 
more, and saw them accompanied by the numerous evidences 
which they brought back of the success of the expedition, 
they burst forth in acclamations of joy and gratulation. 
They awaited the landing of Columbus, when the whole 
po2:)ulation of the place accompanied him and his crew to the 
principal church, where solemn thanksgivings were offered 
up for their return ; while every bell in the village sent forth 
a joyous peal in honor of the glorious event. 

21. The admiral was too desirous of presenting himself 
before the sovereigns to protract his stay long at Palos. He 
took with him on his journey specimens of the products of 
the newly-discovered regions. He was accompanied by sev- 
eral of the native islanders, arrayed in their simple barbaric 
costume, and decorated, as he passed through the principal 
cities, with collars, bracelets, and other ornaments of gold, 
rudely fashioned. He exhibited also considerable quantities 
of the same metal in dust or in crude masses, numerous 
vegetable exotics possessed of aromatic virtue, and several 



24 Discoveries and Explorations. 1493 

kinds of quadrupeds unknown in Europe, and birds Avliose 
various gaudy plumage gave a brilliant effect to the pageant. 
The admiral's progress through the country was everywhere 
impeded by the multitudes tlironging forth to gaze at the ex- 
traordinary spectacle, and the more extraordinary man, Avho, 
in the emphatic language of that time, which has now lost 
its force from its familiarity, first revealed the existence of a 
'New World.' As he passed through the busy, populous 
city of Seville (sev'-il), every window, balcony, and house- 
top which could afford a glimpse of him is described to have 
been crowded with spectators. 

22. It was the middle of April before Columbus reached 
Bar-ce-lo'-nsu The nol)ility and cavaliers in attendance on the 
court, together with the authorities of the city, came to the 
gates to receive him and escort him to the royal presence. 
Ferdinand and Isabella were seated, with their son, Prince 
John, under a superb canopy of state awaiting his arrival. 
On his approach they rose from their seats, and, extending 
their hands to him to salute, caused him to be seated before 
them. These were unprecedented marks of condescension 
to a person of Columbus's rank in the haughty and cere- 
monious court of Castile. 

23. It was indeed the proudest moment in the life of Co- 
lumbus, lie had fully cstal)lished the truth of his long-con- 
tested theory, in the face of argument, sophistry, sneer, skep- 
ticism, and contempt. He had achieved this, not by chance, 
Ijut by calculation, supported through the most adverse cir- 
cumstances by consummate conduct. The honors paid him. 
which had hitherto been reserved only for rank, or fortune, 
or military success, purchased Ijy the blood and tears of thou- 
sands, Avere in his case a homage to intellectual i)ower success- 
fully exerted in behalf of the noblest interests of humanity. "^ 



' Columl)us niiuic tlirce other voyages to the new world, in the first of 
-whi{;h, as well as in the one (leseril)e(l jibove, his diseoveries were con- 
tined to tiie islands between North and South America. In his third 
voyage, niudc in 14'J8, he discovered the niaiulaiid at the mouth of thq , 



Tlie Indians. 25 



24. " The continent of North America was then one con- 
tinned forest. There were no horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, or 
tame beasts of any kind ; bnt a plenty of deer, moose, bears, 
elks, buffaloes, and a variety of other wild ani- 
mals. There was no domestic poultry ; but the 
woods were full of turkeys, partridges, pigeons, and other 
birds. Wild-geese, ducks, teal, and other water-fowl abounded 
in the bays, creeks, rivers, and ponds. There were no gar- 
dens, orchards, public roads, meadows, or cultivated fields ; 
but the Indians so often burned the woods that they could 
advantageously plant their patches of corn. They were clothed 
with the skins of wild beasts. Their houses were generally 
made of small young trees bent and twisted together, and so 
curiously covered with mats or bark as to be tolerably dry and 
warm. 

35. The Indians made their fire in tlie centre of the house, 
which had an opening at the top for the escape of the smoke. 
Their food was coarse and simple, without any kind of sea- 
isoning. They had neither spice, salt, bread, butter, cheese, 
nor milk. Their drink was water. They fed on the flesh and 
entrails of moose, deer, bears, beasts, and birds of all kinds ; 
lon fish, eels, and creeping things. Nothing came amiss. In- 
the hunting and fishing seasons they had venison, moose, fat 
l3ears, raccoons, geese, turkeys, ducks, and fish of all kinds. 
In the summer they had green corn, beans, squashes, and the 
various fruits which the country naturally produced. In the 
winter tliey subsisted on corn, beans, fish, nuts, ground-nuts, 
and acorns. 

26. They had not set meals, but ate when they were hun- 
gry and could find anything to satisfy the cravings of nature. 
Sometimes, from necessity, they lived without food for several 



river O-ri-no'-co, in South America. He died in Spain, in 150G, at al)ont 
the afje of seventy, and his body was deposited in a convent at Val-la- 
do-liiT, Spain, but was afterward removed to Seville. Twi'nty-tiiree 
years after, it was taken across tlie Atlantic to Ilispamola, and, tinally, 
two hundred and sixty j'ears later, was carried with great ceremony to 
Ihe cathedral of Havana^ Cuba, its present resting-place. 



26 Discoveries and Explorations. 



days ; but wlien Avell supplied they goiirmandized. Very lit- 
tle of their food was derived from the earth, excejit what it 
spontaneously produced. Indian corn, beans, and squashes 
were the chief articles for which they labored. The ground 
was both their seat and table. Trenchers, knives, forks, and 
napkins were unknown. Their best bed was a mat or a skin. 
They had neither chair nor a stool ; but they sat upon the 
ground, commonly with their elbows on their knees. A few 
wooden and stone vessels and instruments served all the pur- 
poses of domestic life. 

27. They had neither steel, iron, nor any metallic instru- 
ment. Their knife was a sharp stone, shell, or reed, which 
they sliarpened in such a numner as to cut their hair and 
make their bows and arrows. They made their axes of 
stones. These they sharpened somewhat like common iron 
axes, with this difference that they were made with a neck 
instead of an eye, and fastened with a withe, like a black- 
smith's chisel. They had mortars, stone pestles, and chisels. 
They dressed their corn with a clam-shell, or with a stick 
made flat and sharp at one end. 

28. Their only weapons were bows and arrows, the toma- 
hawk, and the wpoden sword or spear. Their bow-strings 
were made of the sinews of deer or of Indian hemp. Their 
arrows Avere constructed of young elder or of other straight 
sticks and reeds. These were headed with a sharp flinty 
stone or with bones. The arrow was cleft at one end, and 
the stone or bone was put in and fastened with a small cord. 
The tomahawk was a stick of two or three feet in length with 
a knob at the end. Sometimes it was a stone hatchet, or a 
stick with a piece of deer's liorn at one end. Their spear 
was a straight piece of wood sharpened and hardened in the 
fire or headed with bone or stone. 

29. They had made no improvement in navigation beyond 
the construction and management of the hollow trough or 
canoe. Tliey made their canoes of the chestnut, white-wood, 
ami pine trees, As these grew straight to a great length, and 



The Mound-builders. 27 

were exceedingly large as well as tall, they scooped out some 
which would carry fifty or sixty men. The construction of 
these with such miserable tools as the Indians possessed was 
a great curiosity. When they had found a suitable tree they 
made a fire at the root and continued burning it and cutting 
it with their stone axes till it fell. They then kindled a fire 
at such distance from the butt as they chose, and burned it 
off again. By burning and working with their axes, and 
scraping with sharp stones and shells, they made it hollow 
and smooth. In the same manner they shaped the ends, and 
finished it so that it could cut its way with ease through the 
water. ' ' 

30. The Indians had no kind of coin, but they had a sort of 
money which they called wampum. It consisted of small 
l)eads most curiously wrought out of shells, and perforated 
in the centre so that they might be strung on belts in chains 
and bracelets. ' ' With respect to religion, the Indians believed 
that there was a Great Spirit or God, but they worshipped a 
variety of gods. They paid homage to the fire and water, 
thunder and lightning, and to whatever they imagined to be 
sujierior to themselves or capable of doing them an injury. 
They paid their principal homage to an Evil Spirit, and from 
fear worshipped him to keep him in good humor." 

31. *' Behind these Indians, who were in possession of the 
country when it was discovered by the Europeans, is dimly 
seen the shadowy form of another people who have left many 
remarkable evidences of their habits and customs, Themound- 
and of a sino-ular degree of civilization, but who, ^i^ilders. 
many centuries ago, disappeared, either exterminated ])y pes- 
tilence or by some powerful and pitiless enemy, or driven from 
the country to seek new homes south and west of the gulf of 
Mexico. 

32. The evidences of the presence of this ancient people are 
found almost everywhere ujjon the North American conti- 
nent, except perhaps upon the Atlantic coast. They consist 
of mounds, sometimes of imposing size, and other earthworks, 



28 



Discoveries and Explorations. 



so numerous that in Ohio alone there are, or were till quite 
recently, estimated to be not less than ten thousand of the 
mounds, and lifteen hundred inelosures of earth and stone, 
all evidently the work of the same people. In other parts of 
the country they were found in such numbers that no attempt 
has been made to count them all. 




MOUND NE.VK WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA.* 

33. There are no data by which the exact age of these sin- 
gular relics of a once numerous and industrious people, living 
a long-sustained agricultural life, can be fixed ; but it is evi- 
dent from certain established facts that this must date from 
a very remote period. The chief seat of their power and 
population seems to have been in the Mississippi valley. The 
signs of their occupation are many along the banks of its 
rivers. It is very seldom that the human l)oncs found in 
these mounds, except those of later and evidently intrusive 

' This, known as tlie Grave Crock Mound, is one of the most notable 
in \\w Oliio valley. It is scvciily feet liii;li and nine hundred in eircuni- 
t'erence. In it were found two vaults containini;: human skeletons. One 
of these skeletons -was surrounded by about seven hundred shell beads. 
Another skeleton, besides a iJiofusiou of slu'll beads, had eopper rni.ixs, 
and more than two hundred and li fly plates of mieu. "These facts," 
says Foster, " show that the principal occupant of this mound was a 
royal personage. " 



English Discoveries. 29 

burial, are in a condition to admit of their removal, as they 
crumble into dust on exposure to the air. These vrorks are 
often also covered by the primeval forests, which are known 
to have grown undisturbed since the country was first occu- 
pied by the whites, and the annular growth of these trees has 
been ascertained to be sometimes from five to eight centuries." 

34. " A broad chasm is to be spanned before we can link 
the mound-builders to the North American Indians. They 
were essentially different in their form of government, their 
habits, and their daily pursuits. The Indian, since 

known to the white man, has spurned the re- ^fans the^" 

straints of a sedentary life which belongs to agTi- i,^??^*^", 
•' . . builders \ 

culture, aud whose requirements, in his view, are 
ignoble. He was never known to erect structures wliicli 
should survive the lapse of a generation. His lodges consist 
of a few poles, one end planted in the ground and the other 
secured with withes at the top, and over which are stretched 
plaits of matting or of birch bark, or the skins of the buffalo. 
This frail structure is his shelter from the elements. 

35. The domestic economy of the Indians, as contrasted 
with that of the mound-ljuilders, exhibits two widely differ- 
ent conditions of society. In the one case the people had 
fixed habitations and methodical pursuits, and the day's labor 
Avas crowned with definite and accumulative results. In the 
other case the people led a nomadic life — a feast followed a 
famine ; and, with their shifting habitations the accumula- 
tion of personal property would prove an encumbrance rather 
than a convenience." 

36. The tidings of Columbus's discoveries produced aston- 
ishment and excitement not only in Spain, but in English Dis- 
Portugal, England, Prance, and other countries of covenes. 
Europe ; and at once preparations were made for discovery 
and exploration in the new lands.' 

' " The discovery of a strait into the Indian ocean is the true key to 
tlie maritime movements of the fifteenth and tlie first half of the six- 
teenth century." — Prescott. 



80 Discoveries and Explorations. 1497-9 

In 1497, Jolni Cabot {hah'-bot), accompanied by his son 
Sebastian, sailing under a commission from Henry VII. of 
England, reached the coast of Labrador, and thus was the 
first to discover the continent of America. In a second voy- 
age, made by Sebastian Cabot the next year, a krge extent of 
the eastern coast of North America was explored.^ 

37. Columbus, it is certain, never realized how grand 

was the discovery he had made. It never dawned upon his 

mind that he had oi)ened the Avay to another continent. His 

„ . . name, wc all believe, should have been given to 
Origin ° 

of the name the new world, but that honor was reserved for 

Amerigo Vespucci {((h-md-re'-f/o ves-jioot'-clie), an 
Italian navigator. Seven years after Columbus had made his 
discovery Vespucci visited the coast of South America (in 
1499), and two years later made a second visit to the same 
regions. lie prepared accounts of the two voyages, one 
of which being published, moved a German geographer, un- 
der an assumed name, in a Latin work printed the next year 
after the death of Columbus, to suggest the name America for 
the newly-discovered lands. In alluding to this person, Hum- 
boldt says : " I have been so happy as to discover the mime 
and the literary relations of the mysterious personage who, in 
1507, was the first to propose the name of America to desig- 
nate the new continent." 

38. The opinion that the lands discovered by Columbus 
were islands of India was entertained several years after his 
death. It was finally dis])elled (in 1513) by aS})aniard named 
The new lands ^^'^^"^'^'^' gf>^ci'nor of a settlement at Daricn. 

not India. " Floating rumors had reached the Spaniards from 
time to time of counk-ies in the far west teeming with the 
metal they so much coveted; l)ut the first distinct notice of Peru 
was about the year 1511, when Balboa was weighing some gold 

' It is not known with certainty when and where the Cahots were 
born, nor at what time and place tiicy died, tliouu,li it is supposed thej' 
were natives of Italy. Bancroft says of Si-hastian ('id)ot lliat " he i;ave 
Eni>lan(l a continent and no one knows his l)urial-pkce. " 



1513 Tlie First Voyage around the Earth 31 

whicli he had collected from the natives. A young barbarian 
chieftain Avho was present struck the scales with his fist, 
and, scattering- the glittering metal around the apartment, 
exclaimed : ' If this is v/hat you prize so much that you are 
willing to leave your distant homes and risk even life itself 
for it, I can tell you of a land where they eat and drink out 
of golden vessels, and gold is as cheap as iron is with you.' 

39. It was not long after this startling intelligence that 
Balboa achieved the formidable adventure of scaling the 
mountain rampart of the isthmus which divides the two 
mighty oceans from each other ; when, armed with sword 
and buckler, he rushed into the waters of the Pacific and 
cried out, in the true chivalrous vein, that ' he claimed this 
unknown sea, with all that it contained, for the king of Cas- 
tile, and that he would make good the claim against all, 
Christian or infidel, who dared to gainsay it. ' All the broad 
continent and sunny isles washed by the waters of the South- 
ern ocean ! Little did the bold cavalier comprehend the 
full import of his magnificent vaunt. "^ 

40. No other evidence was needed to prove that the lands 
discovered by Columbus, the Cabots, and others Avere no 
parts of India, yet additional proof was given in the voy- 
age made by a Portuguese navigator named Ma- r^^^ 
gellan (fna-jel'-Ian), commanding a Spanish fleet, ^^armmd^^ 
Sailing from Spain across the Atlantic, he discov- ^^^ earth, 
ered the strait which bears his name. Passing through this 
strait he reached the ocean which Balboa had seven years 
previously discovered. This ocean he called the Pacific, be- 
cause of the mild weather he experienced on entering it and 
for several days after. Steering boldly for India, he reached 
a number of islands, but at one of the Philippine group was 
slain in a battle with the natives. His ship, however, pro- 



' About twenty j^ears after Ballioa's discDvery of the Pacific, Pizarro, a 
Spanisli adventurer, crossed tlie Istlimns of Panama, and, vr'ith a small 
force, of whom four men were his brothers, and one was De Soto (see 
p. 34), proceeded against and conquered Peru, 



32 Discoveries and Explorations. 

ceeded on the voyage westward, passed the cape of Good 
Hope, and in this way reached Spain, thus completing the 
first voyage ever made around tlie eartli.^ 

41. Among tliose who accompanied Columbus on his sec- 
ond expedition to the new world was a Spaniard named Ponce 
de Leon {jpon'-tlia da iCi-oan'), of whom it has been said : " He 

was a lion l^y name and still more by nature."' 
o?FlorfdJ. ^ ^'i-^it t^ ^^^c beautiful island of Porto Rico, wliicli 

he made after the expedition alluded to, inspired 
him with the desire of being its governor, and the king of 
Spain gave him the appointment, '' But his commission as 
governor conflicted with the claims of the family of Colum- 
bus ; and policy as well as justice required his removal." He 
had, without good cause, fought the natives of the island, 
had killed many of them in battle, and those that still lived 
and had not escaped to the small islands in the vicinity, were 
slaves. He had been deprived of his office, but he was still 
living on the island on the riclies that he had accumulated, 
when one day he was told by one of tlie natives that on an isl- 
and far to the north-west plenty of gold could be found, 
and at the same place there was a wonderful fountain, . 

42. The Indian, in describing the fountain, said that if 
any old person phould go into it and wash liimself with its 
waters he would immediately become young again. I'lie In- 
dian further stated that a party of Indians had gone to the 
fonntain many years ])efore, and as they had never returned, 
they were without doubt living in that happy land — all of 
them young and all liajiiiy. Tliis story was afterwards told 
to Ponce by other Indians, for they all believed it to be true ; 
and it was told so often, and with so much sincerity, that he, 
too, ilnally believed it. In fact, lie was not the only European 
wlio did believe it. Tlie story found believers not only in 

' iMiiiicUan's ticet orig-iniilly (;onsisted of five vcjssels, but, owini;- to de- 
sertion ami loss, was reduced to one. Before tlie Pacific ocean came to 
be so called generally, it was often called the South Sac or the Soalhrni 
Sea. 



1513 Disco'Gery of Florida. 33 

Porto Rico, but in Spain itself. Peter Martyn, an Italian his- 
torian of the time, in one of his letters writen in Spain, 
says : '' This rumor of the fountain for a truth has been so 
spread that not only the peoj^le, hut also many of them whom 
wisdom or fortune had divided from the common sort think 
it to be true." 

43. Ponce, evidently, gave willing credence to the story, 
for he was growing old, and eagerly desired to be young once 
more ; besides, he thought of the glory it would give him 
to make known to the world the magic pool. At last, with 
the determination of finding the land of gold, and the " won- 
derful fountain of youth," ho fitted out three ships and sail- 
ed from Porto Rico. This took place about twenty years 
after Columbus had discovered that island. Exactly how 
many and what islands Ponce visited is not known. We do 
knoAV, however, that he landed on the island of San Salva- 
dor, the one that Columbus first discovered. He also touched 
at other islands, and at every one inquired for the fountain. 
We can believe that he tasted of the water of many springs, 
and bathed in the waters of many ; still, so long as he did 
not get to be a young man again, he kept going from island 
to island. 

44. In this way he continued his efforts, till one Sunday — 
it was Easter Sunday — he came to a large country which he 
thought was a great island (1513). Its trees were full of blos- 
soms, and millions of flowers covered the ground. The occa- 
sion was one to make him and his men very happy. The day 
was clear, the air balmy, and, as the fragrance of the blos- 
soms was wafted to the hapjiy Spaniards, they no doubt be- 
lieved they had at last come to the fairy land. To the new- 
found region Ponce gave the name of Florida, because the 
discovery was made " on Easter Sunday, which the Spaniards 
call Pascua Florida" {pali' -8coo-oh fio-re'-dah) ; and as the 
word floi'ida means flowery, it may be said there were two 
reasons for calling the country by that beautiful name. 

45. Ponce landed, but found not the fountain. He sailed 



34 



Discoveries and Explorations. 



1588 



along the coast, going around the southern point of Florida ; 
but at last, weary of the search, returned to Porto Rico. 
Sevonil years after, lie went again to Florida, his object l)eing 
to make a settlement, he having l)een appointed governor of 
the country on the condition tlnit lie would colonize it. His 
com])any was attacked by the natives and driven back to the 
ships ; and he, '' mortally wounded by an arrow, returned to 
Cuba to die. So ended the adventurer who had coveted 
immeasurable wealth and perpetual youth. The discoverer 
of Florida desired immortality on earth, and gained its 
shadow.'" * 

46. " Hernando de Soto was the companion of Pizarro in 
The conquest of Peru. He had come 
to America a needy adventurer, with 

no other fortune than his 
But his 

exploits had given him 
fame and fortune, and he appeared 
at the Spanish court with the retinue 
of a nobleman. Still his active ener- .„,^,„ 
gies could not endure repose, and his '^| 
avarice and ambition goaded him to 
fresh enterprises. He asked and ob- 
tained permission to conquer Florida.^ de soto. 
His plans were embraced with enthusiasm. Nobles and gen- 
tlemen contended for the privilege of joining his standard ; 
and, setting sail with an ample armament, he landed at 



^peduloif^' sword and target. 
' ■ had ■ 




1 Two expeditions were made to Carolina by De Ayllcn {Ile-yone'), one 
(in ir)20) for slaves to work on the plantations and in the mines of St. 
I)onnnu:o, the other (in l."")'2r)) for eon<iuest ; l)ut hoth were iinsnecessful. 
In l.">2], Cortez eoiuincred tlie .Mexicans and that country became a j^'ov- 
ince of Spain. In ir)2S, Narvaez i^Xar-nih' -clh) made a disastrous at- 
tempt to C()n(iiier Florida, only four of his men returning, after years of 
wandering. These three commanders were Spaniards. 

""It must be recollected that the name of Florida then (ir);{S) desig- 
nated a vast extent of country, stretchinii- from the gulf of Mexico, 
north-westwardlv, towards luiknown Y^i^^\(n\■n."— Fairbanks s UiMonj of 
Fhrala. 



1541 Discovery of the Mississippi River. 35 

the bay of Es-pi-ri'-tu Santo, now Tamjja bay, in Florida, 
with six hundred and twenty chosen men, a band as gal- 
lant and well appointed, as eager in purpose and auda- 
cious in hope as ever trod the shores of the new world. The 
clangor of trumpets, the neighing of horses, the fluttering 
of pennons, the glittering of helmet and lance startled the 
ancient forest with unwonted greeting. 

47. Amid this pomp of chivalry religion was not forgotten. 
The sacred vessels and vestments, with bread and wine for 
the Eucharist were carefully provided ; and De Soto himself 
declared that the enterprise was undertaken for God alone, 
and seemed to be the object of his sj^ecial care. The adven- 
turers began their march (1539). Their story has been 
often told. For month after month and year after year 
the procession of priests and cavaliers, cross-bowmen, sol- 
diers with hand guns, and Indian captives laden with the 
baggagC;, still wandered on tlirough wild and boundless Avastes, 
lured hither and thither by the ignis-fatuus of their hopes. 
They traversed great portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mis- 
sissippi, everywhere inflicting and enduring misery, but never 
approaching their phantom El Dorado." 

48. "At length, in the third year of their journeying, 
they reached an uninhabited country full of forests and 
swamps, where they had sometimes to swim their horses. 
For seven days they traversed this country, coming 

at last in sight of a village (1541). It was seated of the Missis- 
near a wide and rapid river, which, being the 
largest they had discovered, they called the Eio Grande. 
This was the ' Father of Waters,' the mighty Mississippi. De 
Soto was the first European who looked out upon the turbid 
waters of this magnificent river, and that event has more 
surely enrolled his name among those who will ever live in 
American history, than if he had discovered mines of gold 
and silver," 

49. As the canoes of the Indians were not large enough 
nor strong enough to convey horses across the river, the 



36 Discoveries and Explorations, 1642 



Spaniards built suitable boats, and in these they were borne 

to the Avestern bank of the stream. The search for the land 

De Soto "^ ^^^^ ^^'^'^ ^^^^^ resumed ; and a region west 

MissfsW^® of tlie Mississippi, to the distance of more than 

two hundred miles, was explored. But De Soto, 

discouniged and sick, turned his wanderings eastward, and 

finally made his way back to the river, where he died of a 

fever (1542). 

50. " So soon as the death had taken place, Mos-co'-so, 
whom De Soto had named to be his successor, directed the 

Burial ^^^^J to be put secretly into a house, where it re- 
ef De Soto, mained three days; and thence it was taken at 
night, by his order, and buried. The Indians, who had seen 
De Soto ill, finding him no longer, suspected the reason ; 
and passing by Avhere he lay, they observed the ground loose, 
and, looking about, talked among themselves. This coming 
to the knowledge of Moscoso, he ordered the corpse to be 
taken up at night, and among the shawls that enshrouded 
it having cast abundance of sand to increase its weight, it 
was taken out in a canoe and committed to the middle of 
the stream. 

51. An Indian chief asked for De Soto, saying : ' AVhat 
has been done with my brother and lord, the governor ? ' 

Moscoso told him he had ascended into the skies as he had 
done on many other occasions ; but as he would have to be 
detained there some time, he had left him in his stead. The 
chief, thinking within himself that he was dead, ordered two 
Avell-proportioned young men to be brought, saying that it 
was the usage of the country Avhen any lord died to kill some 
persons who should accompany and serve him on the way, on 
which account they were brought ; and he told him to com- 
mand their heads to be cut off that they might go according- 
ly to attend his friend and master. 

52. Moscoso replied to him that the governor was not dead, 
but only gone into the heavens, having taken with him of 
his soldiers sufficient number for his need ; and he besought 



1577 Drak^ s Voyage around the World. 37 



him to let those Indians go, and from that time forward not 
to follow so evil a practice. The two men were presently 
ordered to be let loose that they might return to their homes ; 
but one of them refused to leave, alleging that he did not 
wish to remain in the pov/er of one Avho, without cause, con- 
demned him to die, and that he who had saved his life he 
desired to serve so long as he should live. Ue Soto's property 
was ordered by Moscoso to be sold at public outcry. It con- 
sisted of two male and three female slaves, three horses, and 
seven hundred swine." ^ 

53. While the eastern and sonthern parts of North Ameri- 
ca were being explored, the western part was not neglected. 
Expeditions sent by Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, ex- 
amined the California peninsula ; and Coronado other ex- 
(Jco-ro-nali' -do) "with an army of three hundred Prorations. 
Spaniards, most of them mounted," sent by the governor of 
Mexico, wandered for three years, extending his excursion as 
far as the western part of Kansas (154:0-1543). His courage 
and skill should have secured for him the aj^probation of 
King Charles : instead, " his failure to find a northern Peru 
threw him out of favor. "^ The most memorable enterprise, 
however, in connection with the early Western explorations 
was that commanded by the English navigator, Francis Drake, 
during his " career of splendid piracy." 

54. On the 13th of December, 1577, Drake sailed from Ply- 
mouth, England, with five small vessels which had 

been procured and armed by himself and others, age\round 
ostensibly for a voyage to Egypt, but really for a ^ ^°^ " 

' The remnant of De Soto's followers, having in vain tried to reach 
Mexico through the forests, built seven frail barks, and sailed down the 
Mississippi and along the coasts of Mexico, till they reached a Spanish 
settlement. 

^ Alarcon (aJi-lar'-son), sent up the coast with two ships, to aid Coro- 
nado, discovered the Colorado of the west, and sniled up it nearly a hun- 
dred miles above the present boinidary of the United States. In 1542, 
Cabrillo {kah-reel'-yo), sailinsr from ]\Iexico, explored the coast as far as 
San Francisco bay ; but, dying, his pilot, Fer-i'e'-lo, continued the ex- 
plorations as far north, probably, as the latitude of the forty-third degree. 



88 Discoveries and Explorations. 1579 

cniise against the dominions and subjects of Spain. The 
governments of Enghmd and Spain were then indeed at peace 
with each otlier ; but mutual liatred prevailed between the 
two nations, and the principles of general law or morals were 
not at that peirod so refined as to prevent Queen Elizabeth 
from favoring Drake's enterprise. 

55. ^" For some months after leaving England, Drake roved 
about the Atlantic without making any prize of value. lie 
then refitted his vessels at a port on the eastern coast of 
Patagonia, and succeeded in conducting three of them safely 
through the dreaded strait of Magellan into the Pacific. 
Scarcely, however, was this accomplished ere the little squad- 
ron was dispersed by a storm ; and the chief of the expedition 
was left Avith only a schooner of a hundred tons' burden and 
about sixty men to jirosecute his enterprise against the power 
and wealth of the Spaniards on the western side of America. 

56. jSTothwithstanding these disheartening occurrences, 
Drake did not hesitate to proceed to the parts of the coast 
occupied by the Spaniards, whom he found unprepared to 
resist him either on land or on sea. He accordingly plundered 
their towns and shij)s with but little difficulty ; and so deep 
and lasting was the impression produced by his achieve- 
ments that, for more than a century afterward, his name 
Avas never mentioned in those countries without exciting feel- 
ings of horror and detestation. 

57. At lengtli, in tiie spring of 1579, Drake, having com- 
pleted his visitation of the Spanish American coasts by the 
plunder of a town on the south side of Mexico, and filled his 
vessel with precious spoils, became anxious to return to Eng- 
land ; but having reason to expect that the Spaniards would 
intercept him if he should attempt to repass Magellan's 
strait, he resolved to seek a northern route to the Atlantic. 
Accordingly, on quitting the coast he steered west and north- 
west ; and, having sailed in those directions about fourteen 
hundred leagues, he had, in the beginning of June, advanced 
beyond the forty-second degree of north latitude, where his 



1579 Drake' s Voyage around the World. 3D 

men, being thus ' speedily come out of the extreme heat, found 
the air so cold that, being i^inched with the same, they com- 
plained of the extremity thereof. ' 

58. Thinking it best to seek the land, he soon made the 
American coast, and endeavored to approach it so as to 
anchor ; but finding no proper harbor there he sailed along 
the shore southward until the seventeenth of the month when 
• it pleased G-od to send him into a fair and good bay, within 
thirty-eight degrees towards the line.' In this bay (San Fran- 
cisco, or Bo-de'-ga), the English remained five weeks, emj)loy- 
ed in refitting their vessel, and obtaining such supplies for their 
voyage as the country offered. 

59. The natives, ' having their houses close by the water's 
side,' at first exhibited signs of hostility ; but they were soon 
conciliated by the kind and forbearing conduct of the stran- 
gers ; and their respect for Drake so increased that, when 
they saw him about to depart, they earnestly imj)lored him to 
conti)iue among them as their king. The naval hero, though 
not disposed to undertake, in person, the duties of sovereign- 
ty over a tribe of naked or skin-clad savages, nevertheless 
' thought not meet to reject the crown because he knew not 
what honor or profit it might bring to his own country ; 
whereupon, in the name and to the use of her majesty. Queen 
Elizabeth, he accepted the crown, sceptre, and dignity of 
the country, wishing that the riches and treasure thereof 
might be so conveniently transported for the enriching of her 
kingdom at home. ' The coronation accordingly took place 
with most ludicrous solemnity, and Drake bestowed on his 
dominions the name of New Albion. 

60. The vessel having been refitted, Drake erected on the 
shore a pillar bearing an inscription commemorating the fact 
of this cession of sovereignty ; and on the 22d of July he 
took leave of his worthy subjects to their great regret. Hav- 
ing, however, by this time abandoned all idea of seeking a 
northern passage to the Atlantic, he sailed directly across the 
Pacific, and thence through the Indian seas, and around the 



40 



Discoveries and Explorations. 



1584 



Cftpe of Good Hope, to England, where he arrived on the 
26th of September, 1580." ^ 

61. Four years hiter the celehrated courtier, Walter Ra- 
leigh, having obtained from Eliza- 
beth a grant of land on the eastern 

part of North America, 
other expe- , , ^ 

ditionsby sent out two VCSSCls 
theEngUsh. ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^.^^^ ^^ 

the coast of Carolina, and the voy- 
agers landed on the island of Eoan- 
oke, "but made no extensive exam- 
ination of the coast." They found 
the region delightful ; and so glow- 
ing an account did they give of it on raleigh. 
their return to England that Elizabeth declared the event to 
be the most glorious in her reign. As a memorial of her un- 
married state she named the country Virginia. Upon Raleigh 
she conferred the honor of knig-lithood.^ 




' Elizabeth received Drake with the most diHtinguished honor. His 
vessel was ))rought to the Thatiies, and a baiKjuet was held on hoard, at 
which Elizabeth was ])reseut, and the occasion was used to give Drake 
the honor of knighthood.' .^ 

" Attempts, l)_y direction of Rald^l, were afterward made to plant per- 
manent settlements on Roanoke island, but \\\(i^- proved unsuccessful. 

The tobacco plant was first ca^^ted to England by some of Raleigh's 
returning colonists, and he inirodllcad, the habit of* smoking it. " It is 
related that when his servant^intered his-room with a tankard of ale, and 
for the first time saw the^smol^issuing from liis master's mouth and 
nostrils, he cast the licpior iOsli^fi'Cf^t v Terribly frightened, he alarmed 
the household with the intelligpiic'e that Sir Walter was on fire." 

The death of Elizabeth (1G0;J} proved fatal, to Raleigh's fortunes. lie 
was tried on a false charge of treason, convicted, and imprisoned. Dur- 
ing his imiirisnnment he wrote a History of England. Being released, in 
order that he might point out a gold mine wliich lie said existed in the 
northern part of South America, and having failed in the exjicdition, he 
was, on his return, iieheaded, under the sentence which had been almost 
forgotten (IfilS). " He met death with the most heroic indiiTerence. Be- 
fore he laid his head ujioii the l)lofk he felt the edge of the axe. and said, 
with a smile ujion his face, that it was a sharp medicine, but would cure 
the worst disease. ^Yhen he was bent down, readv for death, he said to 
the executioner, finding that he hesitated, ' What dost thnu fear ? Strike, 
man ! ' So the axe came down and struck his head oil, in the sixty-sixth 
year of his age." 



1608 Marquette on the Mississippi. 41 

62. " The French competed without delay for the Kew 
World." Cartier {car-te-a') made two voyages, discovered 
the St. Lawrence river, and, in the name of his king, took 
possession of all the country he saw. Later, Port Royal, 
now Annapolis, in Nova Scotia, was settled ; 

and, later still, Champlain {sham-plain') founded Vthe °^ 
the city of Quebec, and explored the lake which 
hears his name (1608). To the region now included in Nova 
Scotia and New Bi-unswick the French gave the name 
A-ca'-di-a. They extended their efforts at settlement to Caro- 
lina and Florida, but without permanent success. No ex- 
peditions, however, were marked with more heroism and self- 
sacrifice than those conducted by the French Catholics in 
their efforts to explore the country in the region of the great 
lakes and along the Mississippi river, and to convert the 
Indians to their faith. 

63. Prominent among these heroic men was Marquette 
{mar-ket'). "In the spring of 1673, he, with Joliet 
{zhuh-lyd) for his chieftain, and five other Frenchmen, em- 
barked at Mackinaw in two frail bark canoes. With paddle 
in hand, and full of hope, they soon glided merrily 

over the crystal waters of Lake Huron. Before on the 
entering the Wisconsin, they looked back a last ^ssissippi. 
adieu to the waters which, great as the distance was, con- 
nected them with Quebec and their countrymen. They 
knelt on the shore to offer, by anew devotion, their lives, their 
honor, and their undertaking to their beloved mother, the 
Virgin Mary Immaculate. Then, launching their boats on the 
broad river, they sailed slowly doAvn its current amid its vine- 
clad isles, and its countless sand-bars. No sound broke the 
stillness, no human form ajipeared, and at last, after sailing 
seven days, they hapj^ily glided into the great river — the Mis- 
sissippi, 

64:. Joy that could find no utterance in words filled the 
grateful heart of Marquette. The broad river of the Con- 
ception, as he named it, now lay before them, stretching away 



42 



Discoveries and Exploratioits. 



1G73 



hundreds of miles to an unknown sea. Soon all was new. 
Mountain and forest had glided away ; the islands, with their 
groves of cotton-wood, became more frequent ; and moose 




MARQUETTE ON THE >riSSISSiri'I. 

and deer browzed on the plains ; strange animals were seen 
traversing the river, and monstrous fish appeared in its 
waters. But they proceeded on tlieir way amid this solitude, 



1673 La Salle descends the 3fississippi. 43 



frightful by its utter absence of man. Descending still 
further, they came to the land of the bison, which, with the 
turkey, became sole tenants of the wilderness : all other game 
had disappeared. 

65. At last, on the 25th of June, they descried footprints 
on the shore. They now took heart, and Joliet and the mis- 
sionary (Marquette), leaving their five men in the canoes, 
followed a little beaten path to discover who the tribe might 
be. They traveled on in silence almost to the cabin doors, 
when they halted, and, with a loud halloa, proclaimed tlieir 
coming. Three villages lay before them. The first, roused 
by the cry, poured forth its motley group, which halted at 
the sight of the new-comers and the well-known dress of the 
missionary. Old men came sloAvly on, step by measured step, 
bearing aloft the all-mysterious calumet. All was silence : 
they stood at last before the two Europeans, and Marquette 
asked, 'Who are you?' 'We are Illinois,' was the answer, 
which dispelled all anxiety from the explorers, and sent a 
thrill to the heart of Marquette. The Illinois missionary was 
at last amid the children of that tribe which he had so long, 
so tenderly yearned to see (1673)." ^ 

66. " We now turn from the humble Marquette, and by our 

side stands the masculine form of Cavelier de la Salle (sal)." 

La Salle was no missionary. His object was fame and fortune. 

" Three thoughts were mastering him. First, he would 

achieve that which Champlain had vainly attempt- 

T n X- 1 • 1 J.- ^ r. 4- LaSaUe 

ed, and oi which our own generation has but now descends the 

seen the accomplishment — the opening of a pas- 
sage to India and China across the American Continent. 
Next, he would occupy the great West, develop its commer- 
cial resources, and anticipate the Spaniards and the English 
in the possession of it. Thirdly, he would establish a forti- 



' Marquette descended the Mississippi a distance of seven hundred 
miles. His deatli occurred two years after, near a small stream in Mich- 
igan, which bears his name. 



44 Discoveries and Explorations. 1681 

fied post at the mouth of the Mississippi, thus securing to the 
French an outlet for the trade of the interior." These 
schemes, or at least the first two, after years of effort, attended 
with great sufferings and loss of life and property, ended 
in failure. How far the third was successful we will relate. 

67. The summer of 1681 was spent when La Salle reached 
Lake Huron, and December was nearly gone when he crossed 
to the little river Chicago. His party, composed of twenty- 
three Frenchmen, was increased by the addition of some new 
friends, savages, whose midnight yells had started the border 
hamlets of New England ; who had danced around Puritan 
scalps, and whom Puritan imaginations painted as incarnate 
fiends. They insisted on taking their women with them to 
cook for them and do other camp work. Thus the expedi- 
tion included fifty-four persons, of whom some were useless 
and others a burden. It was the dead of winter, and the 
streams were frozen. They made sledges, placed on them the 
canoes, the baggage, and a disabled Frenchman ; crossed 
from the Chicago to the northern branch of the Illinois, and 
filed in a long procession dov/n its frozen course. They reach- 
ed the site of the great Illinois village, found it tenantless, 
and continued their journey, still dragging their canoes, till 
at length they reached open water below Lake Peoria. 

68. La Salle had abandoned his original plan of building 
a vessel for the navigation of the Mississippi. Bitter expe- 
rience had taught him the difficulty of the attempt, and he 
resolved to trust to his canoes alone. They embarked again, 
floating prosperously down between the leafless forests that 
flanked the tranquil river, till, on the sixth of February, 
they issued forth on the majestic bosom of the Mississippi. 
Here for a time their progress was stopped ; for the river 
was full of floating ice. La Salle's Indians, too, had lagged 
behind ; but within a week all had arrived, the navigation 
was once more free, and they resumed their course. Towards 
evening they saw on their right the mouth of a great river ; 
and the clean current was invaded by the headlong torrent of 



1682 La Salle descends the Mississippi. 45 

the Missouri, opaque with mud. They built their camp-fires 
in the neighboring forest ; and at daylight, embarking anew 
on the dark and mighty stream, drifted swiftly down towards 
unknown destiiiies. 

69. With every stage of their adventurous progress the 

mystery of this vast New World was more and more unveiled. 

More and more they entered the realms of spring. The hazy 

sunlight, the warm and drowsy air, the tender foliage, the 

opening flowers, betokened the reviving life of Nature. For 

several days more they followed the writhings of the great 

river on its course through wastes of swamp and cane-brake, 

till they found themselves wrapped in a thick fog. Neither 

shore was visible ; but they heard on the right the booming 

of an Indian drum, and the shrill outcries of the war-dance. 

La Salle at once crossed to the opposite side, where, in less 

than an hour, his men threw up a rude fort of felled trees. 

Meanwhile the fog cleared, and from the farther bank the 

astonished Indians saw the strange visitors at their Avork. 

Some of the French advanced to the edge of the water, and 

beckoned them to come over. Several of them approached 

in a canoe to within the distance of a gun-shot. La Salle 

displayed the calumet, and sent a Frenchman to meet them. 

He was well received ; and the friendly mood of the Indians 

being now apparent, the whole party crossed the river. 

70. On landing they found themselves at a town of the 
Kappa band of the Arkansas, a people dwelling near the mouth 
of the river which bears their name. The inhabitants flocked 
about them with eager signs of welcome, built huts for them, 
brought them firewood, gave them corn, beans, and dried 
fruits, and feasted them for three days. ' They are a lively, 
civil, generous people,' says one of the missionaries who ac- 
companied the ex})edition, ' very different from the cold and 
taciturn Indians of the North. ' They showed, indeed, some 
slight traces of a tendency towards civilization ; for domes- 
tic fowls and tame geese were wandering among their rude 
cabins of bark. La Salle and Ms lieutenant, at the head of 
their followers, marched to the open area in the midst of the 



46 Discoveries and Explorations. 1682 

village. Here, to the admiration of the gazing crowd of war- 
riors, women, and children, a cross was raised bearing the 
arms of France, The Frenchmen shouted Vive le Roi 
{veeve leJi' rouah — long live the king) ; and La Salle, in 
the name of Louis XIV., took formal j)ossession of the 
country. 

71. After touching at several other towns of this iieoi)le, 
the voyagers resumed their course, and now, on the sixth of 
April, they are near their journey's end. The river separat- 
ed itself into three broad channels. One division of the jmrty 
followed that of the Avest, another that of the east, Avhile the 
third took the middle. As La Salle drifted down the turbid 
current between the low and marshy shores, the brackish 
water changed to brine, and the breeze grew fresh with the 
salt breath of the sea. Then the broad bosom of the sfreat 
Gulf opened on his sight, tossing its restless billows, limitless, 
voiceless, lonely, as when borij of chaos, without a sail, with- 
out a sign of life. La Salle, in a canoe, coasted the marshy 
borders of the sea ; and then the reunited i)arties assembled 
on a spot of dry ground, a short distance above the mouth of 
the river. 

72. Here a column was made ready, bearing the arms of 
France; and -while the New England Indiaus and their squaws 
stood gazing in wondering silence, the Frenchmen chanted a 
song of the church. Then, amid volleys of musketry and 
shouts of Vive le Roi, La Salle planted the column in its 
place, and standing near it, proclaimed in aloud voice, in the 
name of his king, Louis XIV. of France, that he took ' pos- 
session of all this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, 
ports, bays, and all the nations, peoples, provinces, cities, 
towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams, and rivers, 
witliin the extent of the said Louisiana.' Shouts of Vive le 
Roi and volleys of musketry responded to his Avords. Then 
a cross was planted beside tlie column. On that day the 
realm of France received on parchment a stupendous acces- 
sion ; and all by virtue of a fcol)le human voice, inaudil)le at 
half a mile. Louisiana was the nauic bestowed by La Salle 



1682 How the Lands were disposed of. 47 

on the new domain of the French crown. The rule of the 
Bourbons in the West is a memory of the past, but the name 
of the Grreat King still survives in a narrow corner of their 
lost empire. The Louisiana of to-day is but a single State of 
the American Eepublic. The Louisiana of La Salle stretched 
from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains (1682)." ' 

73. "The right of the Indian natives to the soil in their 
possession was founded in nature. Unfounded, therefore, as 
the claims of European sovereigns to America were, they sev- 
erally proceeded to act upon them. By tacit consent, they 
decided that the countries Avhich each explored should 
be the property of the explorer." In keeping 
with this law, Sjjain claimed all the southern lands were 
part of North America from ocean to ocean. ^^P°^^ 
The French claim extended from the Atlantic, in the lati- 
tude of Nova Scotia, Avestward to the region of the great 
lakes, and then southward through the entire valley of the 
Mississippi. England's claim embraced all the country from 
Labrador to Florida, westward to the Pacific, including a large 
tract to which the Dutch possessed a title by reason of explo- 
ration and settlement." It would be impossible to make a 
single map showing these several claims, inasmuch, as it is 
seen, they lapped over one another. While, then, " the na- 
tions of Europe sported with the rights of the unoffending na- 
tives of America, they could not, it is evident, agree in their 
respective shares of the common spoils." 



' La Salle never carried out liis x)lan. He returned to Canada, and 
thence to France, where he avus received with great honors. Four vessels 
were given to him, with soldiers and settlers, and he sailed in 1684 to 
establish a settlement on the Mississippi ; but instead of landmg at the 
mouth of the river, by mistake the voyagers passed it, and landed in 
Texas. A vain search by land was afterward made for the river, and, 
after much suffering and wandering, La Salle was treacherously shot 
by one of his men (1087). 

"' The Dutch claim was founded on the explorations of Henry Hudson, 
an Englishman, sailing in the service of the " Dutch East Indies Com- 
pany," who (in 1(509) discovered the Hudson river, and sfiiled up it more 
tluw a hundred miles (see p. 80). 



48 



Discoveries and Explorations. 



SUMMARY. 
Discoveries, 1492-1609. 







European Sovereigns. 






English. 


French. 


1492. 


America was discovered by Columbus. 
Other discoveries followed in quick 
succession. 


Henry VU. 


CharlesVni 


1497. 


The Cabots, for England, discovered 








North America. 


'< 


" 


1513. 


Be Leon, for Spain, discovered Flor- 








ida. 


Henry VHI. 


Louis XII. 


1513. 


Balboa, for Spain, discovered the Pa- 
cific ocean. 


.■ 


.< 


1541. 


De Soto, for Spain, discovered the 








Mississippi river. 


" 


Francis I. 


1609. 


Htid.wii, lor the Dutch, discovered 








the Hudson river. 


James I. 


Henry IV. 



CLAIMS. 



Spain. 



England. 



France. 



Holland. 



By reason of the discoveries of Columbus, De Leon, 
and De Soto, and the explorations of Cortez, I'oronado, 
and others, Spain claimed the southern part of North 
America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The northern 
limits were indefinite. 

By reason of the discoveries of the Cabots, and the 
explorations of Go.snold, Smith, and Drake, with those 
made ))y the exi)editions sent by Kaleij^h, England 
claimed all the heart of Nortli America — from the lati- 
tude of Labrador to tliat of Florida — from ocean to ocean. 
By reason of the discoveries of Cartier, Ciiamplain, 
and others, in connection with the exjdorations of Mar- 
quette and La Salle, and the i)lantin(r of military, mis- 
sionary, and trading stations at different points, France 
claimed the valleys of the St. Lawrence, Ohio, and 
Mississipiii. and tlu; country, iucluding the islands, in 
the region of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

By reason of the discoveries and explorations of 
Hudson, the Dutch claimed the valley of the Hudson, 
with all the country from the Connecticut river, and 
even further east, to Delaware bay on the south, 



Topical Remew. 



49 



TOPICS FOR REVIEW. 

Biographical. — The numbers given refer to the pages of this book. 
If, in the estimation of the teacher, the information to be found on these 
pages is not sutficient, resort must be had to cyclopjedias, biographies, 
and other works. The topics may be presented by tlie pupils as verbal 
narratives, or, at the will of the teacher, as written exercises — com- 
positions. It is recommended that both methods be pursued in alterna- 
tion. 



Columbns. 



The Cabots. 



De Leon. 
Cortez. 



De Soto. 
Baleigli. 
Drake. 
Marquette. 

La Salle, 



(See Model following, p. 50. Irving's Life of 
Columbus is recommended to pupils for refer- 
ence.) -..----- 
(See Hay ward's Life of Sebastian Cabot, also Bid- 
die's.) .---.--- 
(See Irving's Companions of Columbus.) 
(He died in Spain, neglected and in solitude, in 
the sixty-third year of his age. See Prescott's 
Conquest of Mexico.) . - - - Note 
(See Theodore Irving's Conquest of Florida.) 
(See Edward's Life of Sir Walter Raleigh.) 
(See Knight's History of England, Vols. IX., X.) 
(See Shea's Discovery of the Mississippi river. 

Also Sparks's Life of Marquette.) - 
(See Sparks's Life of La Salle.) - - - - 



18-34 

30 
32-34 



34,37 

34-36 

40 

37-40 

41-43 
43^7 



Geographical. — 1. Give the location of each place. 3. Give the 
events connected with each. 3. State other facts of interest. 



Iceland 16 

Greenland 16 

San Salvador 33 

Cuba 33 

St. Domingo 33 

Labrador 30 

Isthmus of Darien 31 

Porto Rico 33 

Florida 33 



Mississippi river 35 

Mexico 37 

California 37 

San Francisco bay 39 

Roanoke island 40 

Virginia 40 

St. Lawrence river 41 

Nova Scotia 41 

Hudson river 47 



Historical. — 1. Slate when the event occurred. 3. Give the circum- 
stances leading to it. 3. State the facts connected with it. 4. De- 
scribe the effects or consequences of it. When the nature of the 
topic will not admit of this, narrate the facts, giving them, as far as 
possible, in chronological order ; or, as in the case of The Indians 
or Tlte Mound Builders, give a description. 



The Northmeii's Discoveries. . . .15 
Columbus's Discovery of Amer- 
ica 18-31 

The Indians 25 

The Mound Builders 37 

Discovery of the Pacific 30, 31 

First Voyage around the World. 31 



Discovery of Florida 32 

De Soto's Expedition 34 

The Second Voyage around the 

World 37 

French Explorations 39 

Marquette's Expedition 41 

La Salle's Expedition 43 



50 



Discor>eries and Explorations. 



MODEL FOR A WRITTEN EXERCISE. 
Christopher Columbus. 



His 
early life. 



His 

great theory. 



His 

efforts 
for aid. 



His 

voyages 

and 

discoveries. 



While we know that Columbus was born in Italy, we 
are not quite certain as to the exact phace of Iiis birth. 
After his fame began to spread, several i)laces in Italy 
claimed liim as a native, but it is ffeneraily believed 
tlial to Genoa belongs the coveted honor. The year of 
his birth is also in doubt, nor has any writer been able 
lo solve the uncertainty so as to leave no shadow upon 
the conclusion. Irvin<r cautiously says he was born 
" about the year 1435." His father, who was a wool- 
comber, was poor, it is supposed, though the son was 
sent to good schools, and gained a knowledge of geome- 
try, geography, astronomy, navigation, and the Latin 
language, besides the common branches. He soon be- 
gan to love the sea, and at the early age of fourteen 
made his first voyage. This was followed by many 
others. Taking up his residence in Portugal, he there 
married the daughter of a man who had gained some 
reputation as a navigator and map-maker. 

India was a rich country even in those early days, but 
the merchants of Italy, who traded with it, had no way 
of reaching it except Ijy the Red sea or overland through 
Asia. No other route was then known. Columbus be- 
lieved there was a shorter Avay across the Atlantic 
Ocean. Of course, he had no idea that another conti- 
nent was in the way and would therefore stop him, nor 
had he any idea that the earth was so large. 

He wanted to make an effort to reach India, accord- 
ing to his theory, by sailing westward from Europe, but 
h(^ was too ])oor to build or buy the necessary vessels. 
So he applied for aid to (ilenoa ; then, receiving no en- 
couragement, to Portugal. Here, again, he was unsuc- 
cessful. Then he api)lied to Spain ; and, after years of 
waiting, solicitation, anxiety, and poverty, the Spanish 
queen, Isabella, generously offered to sell her jewels in 
order lo raise the money for tlu^ ])urchase of a fleet. 
This offer was the turning-i)oint, for it shamed the pub- 
lic treasurer into advancing the needed funds. 

Three small vessels were fitted out, and in the summer 
of 1493 they sailed from tin- little portof Palosin Spain. 
At the Canary islands a brief stop was made. Again the 
vessels put to sea. It was difficult for Columbus to pru- 



Topical Remew. 



51 



The 
disgrace 

put 
upon him. 



ceed, for lie had no such excellent instruments to aid 
him as are now in use among navigators. He did not 
know how to account for the variation in the needle, and 
his sailors became alarmed. But he kept on vpitli heroic 
resolution, and, on a bright morning in October, was re- 
warded with a sight of land. The island first seen is a 
little one north of Cuba. He called it San Salvador. 
His landing was effected with great ceremony, while the 
friendly natives, perfectly naked, looked on, believing 
that their visitors were from heaven. Other islands 
were discovered, among them the large ones of Cuba and 
Hayti. Leaving some men, as the beginning of a colony, 
at Hayti, he returned to Spain, where he was received 
amid great rejoicings. Columbus made three more voy- 
ages, and discovered other islands and even the main 
land of South America, but he never for a moment sus- 
pected that these lands belonged to a New World. He 
thought they were the outlying islands of Asia. 

We read of " Columbus in Irons " and wonder what 
it means. What had Columbus done that he should be 
so cruelly treated ? Who put him in irons ? It seems 
that while he was making his third visit to America his 
enemies were btisy in Spain ; for he, like many eminent 
men before his time and since, had incurred the envy of 
others. Even Washington, good and great as he was, 
had enemies. The enemies of Columbus made the king 
and queen of Spain believe that he was treating the 
Spaniards in America with great injustice and cruelty; 
and a person was consequently sent to inquire into the 
facts. This person was also clotlied with certain 
authority, but, instead of doing as he was instructed, 
he made a prisoner of Columbus and sent him home in 
irons. When Columbus arrived in Spain and the people 
saw him — the great navigator who had opened the doors 
of wealth to them — saw him with iron chains fastened 
upon his arms, thej'^ were moved with sorrow and indig- 
nation. Queen Isabella ordered the chains to be re- 
moved, and she and the king gave Columbus a kind 
reception. 

So, ignorant to the last that " he had given a new 
continent to the world," and when his best friend, Isa- 
bella, was no more, and he was sutfering neglect and 
poverty, Columbus died. This event took place in a little 
town in Spain, when he was about seventy years of age. 
His body was at first deposited in a convent, where it was 
allowed to rest seven years, then it was taken to a monas- 
tery in another town. Twenty-three years later it was 
transported to one of the great islands he had discov- 
ered — that of Hayti ; and here surely his remains would 
be permitted to rest forever ! Not so. In 1796, nearly 
three hundred years after his death, they were conveyed, 
with imposing ceremonies, to the island of Cuba, and 
there, in the cathedral qf Havana, they still repose. 



His 

death and 

burial. 



62 Virginia. 



SECTION II. 



COLONIAL PEKIOD. 



Virginia. 

1. The English claim to torrritory in America had for its 
principal foundation stone tlie discoveries of the Ca1)ots. 
By virtue of this claim, James I. granted to an association 
of "noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants," known as the 
London company, " the exclusive right to occupy the regions 
from thirty-four to thirty-eight degrees of north latitude ;" 
and, to an association of " knights, gentlemen, and mer- 
chants," known as the Plymouth company, an equal right to 
the regions from forty-one to forty-live degrees. " Collision 
was not probable, for each company was to possess the soil 
extending fifty miles north and south of its first settlement, 
so that neither might plant within one hundred miles of its 
rival," The northern regions were called North Virginia ; 
the southern. South Virginia. 

2. " The London company spent several months in prepa- 
rations for planting a colony. At length three vessels, fitted 
out under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, 
a navigator experienced in voyages to the New World, 
sailed from England. After passing tliree weeks in the 

Settlement ^^^^^t Indies, they sailed in quest of Roanoke isl- 
of and ; and, having exceeded their reckoning three 

Jamestown. .^.^^^^ Avithout finding land, the crew grew im- 
patient. At tliis juncture, a violent storm, com]wlling 
tliem to scud all night under ))are poles, providentially drove 
them into the mouth of Chesai)eake hay. The first land 
they came in sight of they called Cape Henry, in honor of the 



1607 Settlement of Jamestown. 63 

Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James, as the opposite 
point, Cape Charles, was named after the king's second son, 
then Duke of York, afterwards Charles the First. 

3. A party of twenty or thirty, with Newport, landing here, 
found a variety of pretty flowers and goodly trees. While 
recreating themselves on the shore, they were attacked by five 
savages, who came creeping upon all fours from the hills like 
bears, and with their arrows wounded two, but retired at the 
discharge of muskets. Seventeen days were spent in quest of 
a place for the settlement. A point on the western side of 
the mouth of Chesapeake bay they named Point Comfort, 
because they found a good harbor there, which, after the re- 
cent storm, put them in good comfort. 

4. On the 8th of May (1607), the colonists went farther 
up the river to the country of the Ap-po-mat'-tocks,who came 
forth to meet them in a most warlike manner, with bows and 
arrows, and formidable war clubs ; but the whites, making 
signs of peace, were suffered to land unmolested. At length 
they selected for the site of the colony a peninsula lying on 
the north side of the James river, about forty miles from its 
mouth. The western end of this peninsula, where it is con- 
nected by a little isthmus with the main land, was the spot 
pitched upon for the erection of a town, which was named, 
in honor of the king, Jamestown. This was the first 
permanent settlement effected by the English in North 
America.^ 

5. Upon landing, the council to govern the colony took the 
oath of office. Wingfield, a member of the council, was 
elected president. John Smith, another member, was ex- 
cluded from the council upon some false j^retences. Dean 
SAvift says : ' When a great genius appears in the world, the 
dunces are all in confederacy against him. ' All hands fell to 

' The first permanent settlement made by Europeans within the pres- 
ent Umits of the United States was made ))y the Spaniards at St. Augus- 
tine, Florida, in 15(35. Santa Fe, New Mexico, is also a very old city. 
" When first visited by the Spaniards, about 15-12, it was a populous Indian 
pueblo. When it was first settled by the Spaniards is not known." 



54 



Virginia. 



1607 




/V 



\ I'l 



JOHN SMITH. 



work, tlie council pl.inning a fort, the rest clearing ground 
for 2'i telling tents, preparing clapboards for freighting the 
vessels, laying off gardens, and making fishing-nets. 

6. On the fourth of June, New- 
port, Smith (restored to his position 
in the council), and twenty others 
were dispatched to discover the 
head of the river on Avhich they 
had located their settlement. This 
stream Avas called by the Indians 
Pow-ha-tan', and by the English 
the James river. The natives every- 
where received the strangers kind- 
ly, feasting them with fish, straw- 
berries, and mulberries, for which 
Newport requited them Avith bells, pins, needles, and looking- 
glasses, which so pleased them that they danced before their 
guests and folloAved them from ])lacc to place. In six days 
they reached a town called Powhatan, one of the seats of the 
great chief of that name, whom they found there. It con- 
sisted of tAvelve wigwams, j)leasantly situated on a bold range 
of hills overlooking the river, Avith three inlets in front and 
numy cornfields around. This picturesque spot lies on the 
north bank of the riA^er, about a mile beloAv the falls, and still 
retains the same name." 

7. The men sent out Avere but poorly fitted to settle in a 
wild country. Of the number, only tAvelve Avere laborers. 
" There Avere forty-eight gentlemen to four carpenters." 
Quarrels occurred, the provisions Avere spoiled, the natives 
Ch racter ^^^'*^"'"ic! hostile, and sickness prevailed. In less 
of the than four months fifty men, ''one half of the 
colony," Avere carried to the grave, among them 
being Bartholomev/ (Josnold. The president of tlie coun- 
cil, accused of dishonest acts, Avas deposed, and his suc- 
cessor, "possessing neither judgment nor industry, the 
management of affairs fell into the hands of Smith, Avhose 



1610 The Starving Time. 56 

buoyant spirit of heroic daring diffused light amidst the gen- 
eral gloom. To his vigor, industry, and resolution, the survi- 
val of the colony is due." 

8. In an open boat, Smith made several voyages, sailing 
more than two thousand miles in exploring Chesajjeake bay 
and the rivers that flow into it. While on one of these ex- 
cursions, he was made a jorisoner by the Indians, 

"but he saved his life by displaying a pocket 
compass and exj)laining its properties to the savage chief.'' 
The first printed notice of this adventure in England 
" made famoiis the name of Po-ca-hon'-tas, the daughter 
of PoAvhatan, a girl of ten or twelve years old. This child, 
to whom in later days Smith attributed his rescue from 
death by the club of an Indian, often afterward came to the 
fort with her comj)anions, bringing baskets of corn for the 
garrison." 

9. New settlers came, "yet the Joy in Virginia on the 
arrival of the first recruits was of short continuance, for 
they were chiefly vagabond gentlemen and goldsmiths who 
thought it impossible to thrust a shovel into the ^he gold 
soil, without bringing up a lump of gold. In a excitement, 
small rivulet near Jamestown was found a glittering, yellow- 
ish sand, which they immediately believed to be gold. This 
became the all-absorbing topic of thought and discourse, and 
there was now no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash 
gold, refine gold, load gold. The unskilful refiners pro- 
nounced this shining sand to be very valuable gold, forgetting 
that ' all that glitters is not gold.' This, of course, carried 
the frenzy to its height ; and nothing would content Newport 
but the freighting of his ship with the worthless trash." 

10. A new charter conferring greater privileges was ob- 
tained by the London company, and Lord Delaware Avas 
appointed governor. Before, however, the arrival „, 

of Delaware, Smith, who had been president of starving 
the council nearly two years, was Avounded by the ^°^®' 
accidental explosion of a bag of gunpowder while he was sleep- 



56 Yirginia. 



ing in liis boat, and Avas compelled to embark for England, 
" never to see Virginia again." ^ There were nearly five hun- 
dred men in the colony when he left ; but " in six months, 
indolence, vice, and famine reduced the number to sixty, 
and these were so feeble and dejected that if relief had been 
delayed but ten days longer, they also would have perished 
(1610)." 

11. Under Lord Delaware, who was a prudent and kind- 
hearted man, the colony prospered. " At the beginning of 
the day they assembled in the little church, which was kept 

neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the coun- 

Delaware's ^^J '■> ^'^^^^ ^^^J I'eturned to their homes to receive 

administra- their allowance of food. The settled hours of 

labor, the work being done in common, were from 

six in the morning till ten, and from two in the afternoon till 

four." Unfortunatel}', Lord Delaware was soon compelled by 

ill-health to return to England, leaving his colony to be ruled 

by a deputy. At this time a majority of tlie colonists were 

Episcopalians. All persons of other denominations were 

looked upon as Dissenters. From England the settlers for 

many years received their clergy, and to England they sent 

their sons to be educated. 

12. A trading party, headed by Argall, an English adven- 
turer, made several voyages up the Potomac. While engaged 

„ . in one of these, Aroall '' persuaded an Indian chief 
Marriage ' o i 

of to betray Pocahontas into his hands, to be kept 
oca ontas. ^^ Jamestown as a ransom for the return of Eng- 
lishmen held in caj^tivity by her father. For the sake of her 

' Smith had traveled through a large part of Europe, and had passed a 
very adventurous life. He had fought against the Turks ; had been 
captured in battle, and made a slave ; had been rescued from slavery 
througli the compassion of his Turkish mistress, and had been sent by 
her to Russia, where he was treated as a serf. Rising against his task- 
master, he slew him, and tied from the country. Tiience, in search 
of new adventures and dangers, he went to Morocco ; and at length re- 
turuetl to England in time to embark in the enterprise of settling the 
New "World. In making his explorations in the Virginia waters, he 
sailed, by his own computation, about 3,000 miles. (See page GO.) 



1614 



Tobacco. 



57 




POCAHONTAS. 



liberation, Powhatan set free his English captives. During 
the period of her stay at Jamestown, John Eolfe {rolf), ' an 
honest and discreet' young Englishman, daily, hourly, and, 
as it were, in his very sleep, heard a 
voice crying in his ears that he 
should strive to make her a Chris- 
tian. After a great struggle of 
mind, and daily and believing pray- 
ers, he resolved to labor for the 
conversion of the ' unregenerated 
maiden ; ' and, winning the favor 
of Pocahontas, he desired her in 
marriage. 

13. The youthful princess re- 
ceived instruction with docility ; 
and soon, in the little church at 
Jamestown, which rested on rough pine columns, fresh from 
the forest, she stood before the font, that out of the trunk of 
a tree ' had been hewn hollow like a canoe, openly renounced 
her country's idolatry, professed the faith of Jesus Christ, 
and was baptized. The gaining, of this one soul, the first 
fruit of Virginia conversion,' was followed by her nuptials 
with Eolfe. The immediate result of this event to the colony 
was a confirmed peace with Powhatan." ^ 

14. At first the settlers cultivated the soil in common ; 
but this did not promote industry, and it was found best to 
give each man a few acres to till for himself. Soon the cul- 
tivation of tobacco began in good earnest. Then 

there were no more gold-seekers. The fields, the 

gardens, the squares, and even the streets of Jamestown 

were planted with tobacco. As early as the year 1610, to- 



' Three years after her marriage, Pocahontas was taken to England 
by her husband, where she was received as a princess, bcin^ presented at 
court, and treated with marked attention by all classes. When about to 
return to her native land, she suddenly died (in 1017), leaving a son 
from whom are descended the Boiling, Randolph, Fleming, and other 
families in Virginia. 



58 Virginia. 1620 

bacco was in general use in England. The manner of using 
it was partly to inhale the smoke and blow it out through 
the nostrils ; and this was called " drinking tobacco." 

15. The Virginia tobacco was imj^orted into England in 
the leaf, in bundles ; and was sometimes called the "American 
silver- weed. " Bancroft says : " It was generally used instead 
of coin. Taxes were paid in tobacco ; remittances to Europe 
were made in tobacco ; the revenue of the clergy, the magis- 
trates, and the colony, was collected in the same currency. 
The colonial tradesman received his pay in straggling parcels 
of it ; and ships from abroad were obliged to lie whole 
months in the river, before Ijoats, visiting the i)lantations on 
their banks, could pick up a cargo." Up to 1G19, the plan- 
tations Avere cultivated by the settlers, most of the laborers 
being " apprenticed servants." In that year a Dutch vessel 
sailed up the James river and landed twenty negroes, who 
were sold as slaves. This was the beginning of negro slavery 
in the English colonies. 

16. As yet there were but few families in the colony, and 
most of the men intended in time to return to England. 

Encouraged by the London company, ninety 

Importation yQ^^j^pr women of good reputation embarked for 
of wives. J t> . 

Virginia. These met with a favorable reception, 

and were " married to the tenants of the company or 
to men who were al)le to support them," each man giving 
for his wife one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, the 
price of her passage to Virginia (1G20). A second emigration 
met with even greater favor, the price paid, in some cases, 
exceeding one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco. Domes- 
tic ties soon l)ound the settlers to their new homes. 

17. The London company procured another charter — their 

third — which gave them greater privileges. Still the re- 

_. . . turns from the colony did not satisfv them ; and 
Virginia . -^ .- ? 

a royal the Indians, on two occasions, massacred hundreds 
colony. ^£ ^i^g settlers. At last the king, James I., dis- 
pleased with the freedom of speech indulged in at the public 



1676 Bacon's Rebellion. 59 

meetings of the company, took the affairs of the colony into 
his own hands, his excuse being that the disasters were the 
result of bad government (1G20). 

18. Virginia thus became a roj^il province, her governors 
receiving their appointment from the king. Nearly fifty 
years later, all the " dominion of land and water called Vir- 
ginia" was ceded by Charles II. to Lord Culpep- 
per and the Earl of Arlington " for the term of j^^eif/on 
thirty-one years. " This act exasperated the inhab- 
itants, who already had become dissatisfied because Berkeley, 
their governor, had carried out with great severity the offen- 
sive royal instructions in relation to commerce, taxes, the 
privileges of voting, and church worship. 

19. The people wanted but an excuse for appearing in 
arms, and this was soon found in an invasion made by the 
Susquehanna Indians. The struggle for pojiular lilierty that 
ensued is known as '' Bacon's Eebellion." In that struggle 
the little village of Jamestown was destroyed by fire. The 
people were in the full tide of success, when, suddenly, their 
leader, JSTathaniel Lacon, sickened and died, leaving them 
without a head (1G7G). Berkeley caused twenty-two of them 
to be hung ; and for this cruel and vindictive conduct he was 
recalled by the king, who exclaimed as he did so : " The old 
fool has taken away more lives in that naked country than I, 
for the murder of my father." ^ 

iVew England. 

1 . In the history of the struggle to plant a lasting settle- 
ment at Jamestown are the names of two men whose good 
sense, honesty, and enterprise commend them to all who 
read the interesting story. These are of Smith and Gos- 



' Charles I. was tiled on a oharire of treason to liis people, was pro- 
nounced guilty, and beheaded (1649). His sou, Charles II., on beeoming 
king, showed moderation and clemencj' (lfi(!0-l(58r>). 



60 New England. 1602-20 

nold ; and to these two men, more than to any other two, 
is the first success of that struggle due. These have also 

honorable records in the early liistory of New Eng- 
explwations. ^'^"^' ^^osnold, before going to Virginia, crossed 

the Atlantic in a small bark, explored a large 
part of the coast from Maine southward, discovered Ciipe 
Cod, and " well-nigh secured to New England the honor of 
the first permanent English settlement" (1602). 

2. Smith, a few years later and after leaving Virginia, 
sailed Avith two sliips, examined with care most of the coast 
that Gosnold had previously seen, jirepared a map of his ex 
plorations, and gave to the country tlic name l)y which it has 
ever since been known, that of New England. Unfortu- 
nately, a terrible blot was cast upon the expedition, for 
which, however, its commander was in no wise to blame. 
After Smith's departure for England, the master of the 
second ship kidnapped several Indians, and, sailing to Europe, 
sold them to the Spaniards as slaves. 

3. But we are anticipating events. It will be recollected 
that King James granted to two companies a large jiart of 
the vast region that had been discovered by the Cabots. We 

have sliown how the beo^inning of settlement Avas 

English made in the soutliern portion of this region. 

settlement Under the charter to the Plymouth company, a 
m Maine. • , /-, t-. • . 

colony, Avith George Popham as its president, was 

planted in tlie northern portion, near the mouth of the Ken- 
nebec river. This Avas also in 1G07, only tliree months after 
Smith, Gosnold, and tlieir companions had begun to clear 
the ground for tlie settlement of Jamestown. A fort, store- 
house, rude cabins, and a church Avere built ; but the intense 
cold of the Avinter, the death of tlieir president, the destruc- 
tion of their storehouse by fire, and other causes', so discour- 
aged the settlers that they returned to Europe. Thus ended 
the colony. 

4. To forty wealthy men, the most powerful of the Eng- 
lish nobility. King James, in 1620, issued a patent Avhich, 



1607 Tlie Pilgrims in England, 61 

" in American annals, and even in the history of the world, 

has but one parallel." By this charter, known as the " Great 

Patent," the whole of North America, from the 

The 
fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of latitude, was Great 

granted in full property. This vast region, in- ^^^^^^- 

eluding all its islands, rivers, harbors, mines, and fisheries, 

was given to forty persons. The name of the new association 

was " The Council established at Plymouth ;" but, for the 

sake of brevity, it was called the Council of Plymouth. The 

Plymouth company, so called, no longer existed. 

5. There were at that time in England large numbers of 
the inhabitants who did not believe that it was right to wor- 
ship God in the manner required by the laws of the country. 

They desired to purify the Established Church „ .^ 

'' 1 Puritans 

from what they regarded its corrujjtions : hence, and 

in derision, they were called Puritans. The term ^ grims. 
was applied to several sects, including one known as Brown- 
ists ; but these last were not strictly Puritans, for, while the 
Puritans denounced the Church of England, they still con- 
tinued to have the most profound reverence for it. The 
Brownists, so called by the Puritans, were seceders or Sepa- 
ratists, inasmuch as, "renouncing all obedience to human 
authority in spiritual things," they separated themselves 
entirely from the Church of England and formed themselves 
into independent congregations. 

6. "At an early period of King James's reign one of these 
congregations of seceders had been wont to hold meetings at 
Scrooby, then the residence of one William Brews- ^j^^ 
ter, a gentleman of fortune, a good scholar, who was _ Pilgrims 
living a retired life, devoted to study, meditation, ^° ^^ ^'^ ' 
and practical exertion to promote the cause of religion. The pas- 
tor of the church, one John Robinson, was a man of learning, 
eloquence, and lofty intellect. But what were such gifts in the 
possession of rebels, seceders, and Puritans ? It is needless to 
say that Brewster and Eobinson Avere baited, persecuted, watch- 
ed day and night, some of the congregation often clapped into 



62 



JVew England. 



1607-20 



prison, others Into the stooks, doprivod of tho moans i>f live- 
lihood, outhiweil, famished, banned. IMainly their tH)nntry 
was no plaee for them. After a few years of sneh work tliey 
resolved to establish themselves in lloUand, where at least 
they hoped to tind refnge and toleration. 

7. But it pmved as diltienlt for them to ipiit the country 
as to remain in it. Watched and liunted like gang's of i-oin- 
ers, forgers, or other feli>ns attempting to tlee from just ii'c, 
set upon by troopers armed with " bills and guns and otliev 
weapons.' seized when about to embark, pillaged autl 
stripped by catcl\poles, exhibited as a show to grinning voww- 
try folk, the wonuMi and (.'hildren tlealt with like drunken 
tramps, led before magistrates, committed to jail, they were 
only able after attemi)ts lasting through two years' time to 
etl'ect their escape to Amsterdam." Then the wanderers 
were Pilgrims. 

8. Their residence in Amsterdam was brief. To Leyden 
(Ji'-ilen) they soon renu>ved, and here for several years they 
" lived togetlier in peace, and k)ve, and holiness. But they fear- 
ed that, if tliev continued there much longer, thev 

The • ^ ^ • 

Pilgrims would cease to be Eng- 
in Holland, jj^j^^ .^^^^^ ^^.^^^^j^^ ^^^1^^^,^ 

all the manners and ideas and feel- 
ings of the Dutch. For this and 
other reasons," they decided to 
plant a colony in America, where, 
in the enjoyment of their religious 
rights, they would once more be 
niuler the government of their 
native land. The *' embarkation" 
took place at Delft-IIaven. 

9. '" Delft- Haven is 5iu iinim- 
portant seaport on the long line 
of the Dutch coast ; yet it is 
worthy of remembrance, for it marks the manh of man to- 
ward the future, and toward freedom. On the morning of 




SHIP or THK TIMK OF THK ril.HlUMS 



1620 The Emharkation. 65 

tlic 22(1 of July, of the year 1C20, a few perBons, on the quiet 
key, knew tliut a small bark of sixty tons, called tlie Speed- 
well, was preparing for a voyage ; but whither YiL^ 
and for what ? She was no merchantman bound Embarkation, 
for gain, no privateer for plunder, no holiday sail for pleas- 
ure, no explorer for new continents. 

10. On that morning the living freight of that vessel 
gathered on her deck, men, women, and children, some old, 
but mostly young. They were English born, and English 
bred, though they had now lived in this foreign land twelve 
years. They did not forget the land of their birth, yet they 
thanked the Dutch for shelter when they were driven out 
from their homes and the places they loved so well. They 
had taken counsel of their hope and their fears ' to seek of 
God,' using their own words, ' a right way for us and our 
children.' They believed they had found the right way, 
and were now to go forward on it, leaving behind the larger 
part of their church and their minister, for all could not 
then go. 

11. The Pilgrims stood in groups, and the conversation, if 
brief and low, was earnest. Then Robinson knelt down on 
the deck, and with him knelt his friends and companions. 
He stretched out his hands, and cried to the Lord, "and his 
words moved all hearts. ... It would be hard to say 
which were the more bereft ; those who went, or those who 
stayed. As they on the shore watched the departing bark 
with streaming eyes, they were borne up by a living faith 
that liberty and righteousnes should one day prevail. 

12. They sailed for Southampton, England, where awaited 
them another small ship, the Mayflower. The final arrange- 
ments having been made, the two ships stood out to sea. 
The passengers had hardly begun to arrange themselves to 
their ncAv circumstances, when signals from the Speedwell 
told them that something was wrong — that evil threatened 
them. To turn back was the only alternative ; and then to 
learn that the Speedwell was leaking badly was the unwcl- 



64 New England. 1620 

come news. To old England, then, they must once more 
steer, and that without delay, for tlie water made fast, so that 
when they arrived at Dartmouth, they believed that in three 
hours more the ship ' would have sunk right down.' 

13. After eight days of delay, they again sailed, but, be- 
fore long, the signals told of further trouble. The supersti- 
tious element was then rife in the land ; and the habit of 
tracing every event to a special act of God led some to fear 
that these delays and rebuffs signified that God was dis- 
pleased at the voyage. It was decided to put back to England 
— this time to Plymouth. Finally the Mayflower, with as 
many of the Pilgrims as could be accommodated on board, 
set sail for America, solitary and alone." 

14. After a boisterous voyage of more than three months, 
the Mayflower dropped her anchor at noon, on a Saturday, in 
the harbor of Cape Cod. There, in the cabin of the little 

tti t "^'^^s^-'' ''^ ^^^6 men, forty-one in number, agreed 
of to a form of government for their colony, by signing 

ymou . |.]-jgjj, najneg to a compact that had been pre- 
viously prepared. With the same unanimity they chose John 
Carver governor for one year. " Having ke])t their Sabbath 
in due retirement, the men began the labors of the week by 
landing a shallop from the ship, and hauling it up the beach 
for repairs, while the women went on shore to wash clothes. 
While the carpenter and men were at work on the boat, six- 
teen others, armed and provisioned, with Stand ish for their 
commander, set off on foot to explore the country. The 
only incident of this day was the sight of five or six savages, 
who, on their approach, ran away too swiftly to be overtaken. 
At night, lighting a fire and setting a guard, the party 
bivouacked at the distance, as they supposed, of ten miles 
from the vessel. 

15. Proceeding southward, next morning, they ol>served 
marks of cultivation ; some heaps of eartli which they took 
for signs of graves, and the remains of a hut, with a ' great 
kettle, which had been some ship's kettle.' In a heap which 



1620 Settlement of Plymouth. 65 

they opened tliey found two baskets containing four or five 
bushels of Indian corn, of which they took as much as they 
could carry away in their pockets and in the kettle. The 
second night, which was rainy, they encamped again with 
more precaution than before. On Friday evening, having 
lost their way meanwhile, and been amused by an accident 
to Bradford, who was caught in an Indian deer-trap, they re- 
turned to their friends. 

16. The succeeding week was spent in jmtting their tools 
in order and preparing, timber for a new boat. During this 
time, which proved to be cold and stormy, much inconven- 
ience was experienced from having to wade through the shal- 
low water to the shore ; and many took ' coughs and colds, 
which afterward t^^rned to scurvy.' On Monday of the week 
next following, twenty-four of the colonists, in the shallop, 
which was now refitted, set out for an exploration along the 
coast. That day and the following night they sufi'ered from 
a cold snow-storm, and were compelled to run into the shore 
for security. 

17. As soon as the state of the weather permitted, a party 
of ten, including Carver, Bradford, and others of the princi- 
pal men, set off with eight seamen in the shallop, on what 
proved to be the final expedition of discovery. The severity 
of the cold was extreme. ' Tbe water froze on their clothes, 
and made them, many times, like coats of iron.' Coasting 
along the cape in a southerly direction for six or seven 
leagues, they landed and slept at a place where ten or twelve 
Indians had appeared on the shore. The Indians ran away 
on being approached. 

18. The next day, while part of the company in the shal- 
lop examined the shore, the rest, ranging about the country, 
found a burial-place, some old wigwams, and a small store of 
parched acorns buried in the ground. The following morning, 
at daylight, they had just ended their prayers, and were pre- 
paring breakfast at their camp on the beach, when they heard 
a yell, and a flight of arrows fell among them. The assail- 



66 New England. 1621 

ants turned out to be thirty or forty Indians, who, being 
fired upon, retired. Neither side had been harmed. A num- 
ber of the arrows were picked up, ' some wliereof were 
headed with brass, others with hart's horn, and others witli 
eagles' chiws. ' 

\\). Getting on board, they sailed along the shore in a 
storm of snow and sleet. In the afternoon, the gale having 
increased, their rudder was disabled, and they had to steer 
with oars. At length the mast was carried away, and they 
drifted in the dark with a flood tide. With difficulty they 
brought up under the lee of a ' small rise of land. ' Here a 
part of the company, suffering from wet and cold, went on 
shore, though not without fear of hostile neighbors, and 
lighted a fire by which to pass the inclement night. 

20. On Monday they sounded the harl)or, and found it fit 
for shipping, and marched also into the land, and found 
divers cornfields and little running brooks, a place, as they 
supposed, fit for situation." And here they all landed, to the 
number of one hundred and two, on the 21st of December, 
1620, a memorable day in the calendar. "A grateful pos- 
terity," says Bancroft, " has marked the rock on which they 
first trod. In memory of the hospitalities which the company 
had received at the last English port from which they had 
sailed, this oldest New England colony took the name of Ply- 
mouth." 

21. " The imagination," says Palfrey, " vainly tasks itself 
to comprehend the horrors of that fearful winter. The only 
mitigations were, that the cold was of less severity than is 

first "^"'"^^ '" ^^^^ place, and that there was not an en- 
winter at tire want of food and shelter. The men carried 
Plymouth. ^^^^ ^i^g ^|g.^^ through the cold and snow, and then 
hastened back from the burial to wait on the sick ; and as 
the sick began to recover, they took the places of those 
whose strength had been exhausted. Warm weather came at 
length, and the birds sang in the woods most pleasantly. 
Never was spring more welcome ;" but death had carried to 



1623 Settlement of New Hampshire. 67 

the grave more than half their namber, inchiding Carver and 
his wife. Bradford was their second governor. The fears 
that at first they had of the Indians were put at rest by a 
treaty of friendship made with Mas-sa-soit', the great chief of 
the Wam-pa-no'-ags (1621).^ 

22. " Our fathers were brought hither by their high ven- 
eration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its 
light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its 
principles with the elements of their society, and to „, 
diffuse its influence through all their institutions, aim of the 
civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these ^ g"°is. 
sentiments, and extend this influence still more widely ; in 
the full conviction that that is the happiest society which 
partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceable 
spirit of Christianity." 

23. The " Great Patent " to the Council of Plymouth, in- 
cluding, as it did, the exclusive right of fishing in the waters 
off the coast of New England and beyond, found no favor 
with those outside of the company who desired to 

engage in the business. Said Sir Edward Coke, of New 
a celebrated English lawyer, '' This is to make a Hampshire, 
monopoly upon the high seas." The opposition, however, 
did not prevent the council from granting to two men, 
Gorges {gor'-jez) and Mason, the lands between the Merrimac 
and the Kennebec. Under this grant, a colony of fishermen 
made settlements at Plymouth and Dover (1623). When, six 
years later. Mason obtained, in his own name alone, a title to 
the southern and western portions of the same land — New 
Hampshire — he gave cause for the series of lawsuits about 
lands that for a quarter of a century distressed the settlers.'' 



' This treaty, " made in a day, was sacredly kept for more than half a 
century. A bundle of arrows, wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake, was 
the warlike message of Ca-non'-i-cus, sachem of the Narragansetts ; but 
when Bradford sent back the skin stuffed with powder and shot, his cour- 
age quailed, and he sued for amity" (1022). — Bancroft. 

" In 1641, the people of the different settlements of New Hampshire 
placed themselves under the government and protection of Masssachu- 



Neio England. 1630 



24. The third English colony j)lixnted with success in New 
Enghind was at Salem. John Endicott, by authority of a 
grant made by the Council of Plymouth to a company of 

five persons beside himself, arrived in the autumn 
Massachusetts of 1638 ; and, joined by persons who had already 
Bay ony. ggj^^^ig^j there, laid the foundation of the colony. 
This was the beginning of the " Puritan refuge'' in America. 
Endicott's associates, re-enforced by many Puritans of note and 
many other excellent men, obtained from King Charles a 
charter, which formed them into a body by the name of the 
" Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New 
England" (1G29). "This charter was cherished for more 
than half a century as the precious boon." 

25. Twelve ships soon arrived in Massachusetts bay ; but, 
in consequence of their long voyages, the emigrants suffered 
from fevers and the want of proper food. They "had in- 

Setiiement tended to dwell together ; but, in their distress, 
of Boston, they planted where each was inclined." John 
Winthrop, their governor, made Charlestown his first home. 
" On the other side of the river, on the little peninsula, 
scarce two miles long by one broad, marked by three hills, 
and blessed with sweet and pleasant springs, safe pastures, 
and land that promised rich cornfields and fruitful gar- 
dens, the first good house was built, even before the place 
took the name (Boston) which Avas to grow famous through- 
out the world. "^ Winthrop took possession of this i^enin- 
sula, and there commenced a settlement (lG30j. 

setts ; but in 1680 the two colonies were separated by order of the kins;. 
Twice after this New Hampshire was united to Massachusetts ; but from 
1741 it was independent. 

* Tlie Indian name of the peninsula was abbreviated into the name 
Shawmut. Some of the colonists were from Boston, England. The first 
Englisli settler there was William Blackstone. ' ' There is a mystery in his 
life wliich i)robably can never be explained. When and how he came to 
America is unknown. The first planters of .ALissachusetts bay found liim 
already established on the Siiawmut peninsula, now Boston. In l(j:J4 he 
sold out his title to Shawmut, and lu'came probably the first white settler 
of Rhode Island. WilHams found him there in 1030. "— ^l/V(yW« llidvry 
of lihudc Island. 



1636 Hookef s Emigration. 69 

26. The valley through which the Connecticut river flows 
was soon found to be pleasant and fertile. The Dutch of New 
Netherlands were the first to ascend the stream ; and, to pro- 
tect their claim to the region, they put up a building settlement of 
on the west side of the river, which answered the Connecticut, 
double purpose of a fort and trading-house. The Pilgrims of 
Plymouth also ajDpear in the early history of Connecticut. 
They, too, erected a building — a trading-house — where they 
carried on a profitable traffic in furs with the natives. Mean- 
time, however, the " soil of Connecticut," by an act of the 
Council of Plymouth, had been ' ' ceded away, ' ' and was now the 
property of Lord Say-and-Seal, Lord Brooke, and others. At 
the mouth of the Connecticut a colony was planted by John 
Winthrop, son. of the Massachusetts governor, which, in 
honor of the proprietors, was named Saybrook (1635). 

27. In the autumn of the same year a second colony was 
established in Connecticut. It was made at Hartford, where 
the Dutch fort had stood. The settlers were from the vicin- 
ity of Boston. These were followed the next year Hooker's 
by another emigration from the same locality, con- emigration. 
ducted by the Rev. Thomas Hooker. " About the begin- 
ning of June, the first warm month of the New England 
year, Mr. Hooker^ with about one hundred men, women, and 
children, set out upon the journey which had been long m 
contemplation. Over mountains ; through swamps ; across 
rivers, fording or upon rafts ; with the compass to point out 
their way, slowly they moved westward. 

28. Now, in the open spaces of the forests where the sun 
looked in ; now, under the shades of the old trees ; now, 
struggling through the bushes and vines — driving their flocks 
and herds before them — with hearts as cheerful as the month, 
slowly they moved on. A stately, well-ordered journey it was, 
for gentlemen of fortune and rank were of the company. 
Ladies, too, who had been delicately bred and had known 
little of toil or hardship until now, were there. At the end 
of about two weeks they reached the land almost fabulous to 



70 New England. 1639 

them — the valley of the Connecticut. It lay at their feet, 
beneath the shadow of the low-browed hills. It lay holding 
its silvery river in its embrace, like a strong bow half bent in 
the hands of the swarthy hunter, who still called himself lord 
of its rich acres." 

29. These settlers had come to a delightful region, but they 
were surrounded by perils. Their neighbors, the Dutch, were 
unfriendly, for they looked upon them as intruders ; but their 

The worst foes were the hostile tribe of Indians called 
Pequod War. Peqiiods or Pequots, With these (in 1G37) they 
were compelled to Avage a fierce war ; but Indian cunning 
and ferocity were no match for European courage and skill. 
What could clubs and arrows avail against muskets and ar- 
mor ? The Pequods were defeated and completely broken up 
as a tribe. Of the few that survived and surrendered, some 
were enslaved by the English, the others Avere sent to the 
Narragansetts and Mohegans. 

30. Two colonies Avere already in Connecticut. A third, 

" remarkable for the religious sj^irit that marked its laAvs," 

was founded at Ncav Haven, by Theophilus Eaton, a man 

„^ „ of large fortune, and John Davenport, a distin- 
The New ^ ^ . . . x * • i 

Haven guished Puritan minister (1G38). A title to the 

Colony, lands was obtained by a treaty with the natives. 

Annual elections Avere held, and Eaton was chosen governor 

annually till his death — a period of tAventy years. 

31. " The first house for public Avorship in Xcav HaAcn 
was commenced in 1639. That such a house should be built 
Avas decided in the town meeting. It was fifty feet square, 

having a toAver surmounted with a turret. The 

A Sabbath i^vexv Avcre seated on one side of the house ; the 

m New T i 

Haven in Avomen on the other. Every one, according to 

'^^imes^'^ his ofiice or his age, or his rank in society, bad 
his place assigned to him. In this temple the 
fathers of New Haven maintained the Avorship and ordi- 
nances of God for about thirty years. Let us go back to one 
of their ancient Sabbaths, You see in the morning no mo- 



1639 



A Sabbath in New Haven. 



71 



tion, save as tlie herds go forth to their pasture in the com- 
mon grounds, driven by the herdsmen. At the appointed 
hour, the drum having been beaten both the first time and 
the second, the whole population, from the dwellings of the 
town and from the farms on the other side of the river, come 
together in the place of prayer. 




PURITANS GOING TO CHURCH. 

(From Boughton's celebrated Picture.) 

32. The sentinel is placed in the turret to give the first 
alarm in the event of an attack by the Indians. Those who 
are to keep ward, the military guard, go forth, pacing two 
by two the still green lanes. In this rude and unfurnished 
structure is devotion true and pure. Through a long course 
of exercises, Avhich would weary out the men of our degen- 
erate days, these hearers sit or stand. They love the word 
that comes from the lips of their pastor. They love the order 
of this house. To them, each sermon, every prayer, every 



72 New England. 1639 

tranquil Sabbath is the more precious for all that it has cost 
them. As the day declines they retire to their dwellings, 
and close the Sabbath with family worship." ^ 

33. Roger "Williams, the founder of Ehodc Island, was a 
"fugitive from English persecution." Landing at Boston, 
the year next after Winthrop had taken up liis a])ode there. 

The founder ^^® soon incurred the enmity of those in power, 
of Rhode for on every occasion he held firmly to the doc- 
^ *° • trine that "the civil power should have no con- 
trol over the religious opinions of men." After a two years' 
residence at Plymouth lie went to Salem, and there he became 
the pastor of the church. His efforts, however, to separate 
the affairs of State from the affairs of the Cliurch so excited 
the hostility of the authorities, that they resolved to banish 
him from the colony. 

34. " His immediate departure, in a shij) then ready to 
sail for England, was resolved upon. An order was sent for 
him to come to Boston, which he declined to do. A boat was 

His fli ht '^^^^ despatched to take him l)y force, and jilace 
to him on board the ship. Warned l)y the ]irevious 
"order, he had already escaped three days before, 
no one knew whither. Leaving his wife and two infant 
children, he set out alone in midAvinter to perform that 
arduous journey of whicli, thirty-five years later, he Avrote, 
' I was tossed for one fourteen weeks, in a bitter winter 
season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean.' 

35. Happily for tlie world, and most fortunately, as the 
event soon proved, for the people of New England, he ehuled 
the vigilance of his ]iursurers. Driven from the society of 
civilized man, Williams turned his steps soutliward, to find 
among heathen savages the boon of cliarity which Avas re- 



' The people of the Connecticut colony — Tlartforrl, Windsor, and 
Wethersfield — met at Hartford in lOofl, and united in forminii; a govern- 
ment. In 1044, Sayhroolv joined the ("oiuiecticut eolonj'. The two col- 
onies, Connecticut and Ts'ew Haven, were formed into one in 1(3(35, under 
ii royal charter grtyited by Charles H, 



1663 Early History of Rliode Island. 73 

fused at lionie. Tlie now venerable Massasoit/ who, sixteen 
years before, had first welcomed the weary Pilgrims to his 
shores, and with whom Williams, during his residence at Ply- 
mouth, had contracted a friendship, received with open arms 
the lonely and twice-exiled Puritan. From him Williams 
obtained a grant of land, where lie built a home and com- 
menced planting. 

36. But this was not to be his home. He was soon advised 
by his friend, Governor Winslow of Plymouth, that, as his 
plantation was within the limits of the Plymouth colony, he 
should remove. This he resolved to do ; and, in company 
Avith five others, who appear to have folloAved him from Sa- 
lem, he embarked in his canoe to find at length a resting 
place on the free hills of Providence. . . . Sailing up 
what was then a broad and beautiful sheet of water, skirted by 
a dense forest, their attention was attracted by a spring close 
on the margin of the stream, where they landed, and com- 
menced a settlement, to which, in gratitude to his Supreme 
Deliverer, Williams gave the name of Providence (1G38)." 

37. A deed from the Narragansett Indians soon made 

Williams the owner of a large tract of land. To this asylum 

for those " distressed for conccience" many fled. They came 

from England as well as from Massachusetts ;_ , . . ^ 

*=> . ' Early history 

and to those whom he thought most m want " he of 
gave away his lands until he gave all away." The K^o^e Island, 
affairs of the colony, so long as the population was not large, 
were managed by the settlers at their town meetings. New 
settlements in a short time were made, which were united 
under one government by a charter obtained by Williams 
from the English Parliament (1G44). (Not long after Charles 
the Second ascended the throne, he gave to Khode Island 
another and better charter (1663). This, Andros, the gov- 
ernor of all New England when James the Second was king, 
tried to take away ; but he was foiled, and it continued to be 

' The nam§ ,qis givjKn by Arnold is Ous-ci/-'rm'-qnm, 



74 New England. 1643 

the great foundation law of Rhode Island for threescore 
years and a century. 

38. The first union of any of the American colonies, " for 
mutual lielp and strength," took place in 1643. " A general 
confederation of the New England colonies had been pro- 

. posed, and in agitation several years. The cir- 

New England cumstances of the English nation and the state of 
CO onies. ^.j^^ colonies at this time made it a matter of ur- 
gent necessity. The colonies had extended their settlements 
upon the rivers, and had made them in a more scattering 
manner than was at first designed. No aid could be ex- 
pected from the mother country. The Dutch had so ex- 
tended their claims, and were so powerful and hostile, as to 
afford a just ground of general alarm. All the plantations 
were compassed by numerous tribes of savage men. The 
Narragansetts appeared hostile, and there were the appear- 
ances of a general combination among the Indians to extir- 
pate the colonies. 

39. Commissioners from the colonies of Connecticut, New 
Haven, and Plymouth were sent to Boston to confer with 
the commissioners of Massachusetts. A spirit of harmoay 
and mutual condescension prevailed, and articles of union 
were adopted for the four colonies. This was of the highest 
consequence to the colonists. It made them formidable to 
the Dutch and Indians, and respectable among their French 
neighbors. It was happily adapted to maintain harmony 
among themselves. It was one of tlie principal means for the 
preservation of the colonies during the wars in which Eng- 
land was engaged. It was the grand source of mutual de- 
fence in Philip's war. The union lasted more than forty 
years, until tiie abrogation of the charters of the New Eng- 
land colonies by King James the Second." 

40. " The rise in England of ' the people called Quakers ' 
was one of the most renuirkable results of the Protestant 
revolution." " Twelve of their number, converts of George 
Fox, the first Quaker iu the world, came to Boston. They 



1660 Persecution of the Quakers. 75 

seemed to be impelled by an earnest love for the souls of 

men, and a pure desire to make known what they considered 

a revelation from Heaven. But the rulers looked „ 

Persecution 
upon them as plotting the downfall of all govern- of the 

ment and religion. They were banished from the ^^^^^''s- 

colony. In a little while, however, not only the first twelve 

had returned, but a multitude of other Quakers had come 

to rebuke the rulers, and to preach against the j)riests and 

steeple houses. 

41. These enthusiasts were received with hatred and scorn. 
They were thrown into dungeons ; they were beaten with 
many stripes, women as well as men ; they were driven forth 
into the wilderness, and left to the tender mercies of wild 
beasts and Indians ; but the more the Quakers were scourged 
and imprisoned and banished, the more did the sect in- 
crease, both by the influx of strangers and by converts from 
among the Puritans. In 1659 two Quakers were hanged in 
Boston. A woman had been sentenced to die with them, 
but was reprieved on condition of her leaving the colony. Her 
name was Mary Dyer. Next year she returned to Boston and 
was executed. 

42. In 1660, the same year in which Mary Dyer was ex- 
ecuted, Charles the Second was restored to the throne of his 
fathers. This king had many vices ; but he Avould not 
permit blood to be shed, under pretence of religion, in any 
part of his dominions. The Quakers in England told him 
what had been done to their brethren ; and he sent orders to 
Governor Endicott, of Massachusetts, to forbear all such 
proceedings in future. And so ended the Quaker persecu- 
tion, one of the most mournful passages in the history of 
our forefathers." 

43. About forty years after the Pequod war, another fierce 
war broke out in Kew England, known as King Philip's war. 
King Philip, as he was called by the English, was a son and 
successor of Massasoit, who had been the fast friend of the 
colonists. But the whites )i§cl now greatly increased in num- 



70 Neio England. 1675 

bcrs, the whole popuhition in IVew England being about sixty 
thousand, while the Indians were only half as numerous. The 
latter, however, were much more to be feared than 
Philh)''s war formerly, for many of them had guns and ammu- 
nition instead of Ijows and arrows, and hatchets 
and knives instead of the rude weapons made of stone or 
bone which they had used during the Pequod war. 

4-4. Fk^tween Narragansett bay and Plymouth Avere the 
Wam-pa-no'-ags, of Avhich tribe Philip was the chief. As the 
farms and villages of the Avhites were rapidly encroaching 
upon the hunting grounds of this tribe collisions followed ; 
but whether the storm which broke out so suddenly in 
1675 was accidental or the result of a plot is not certain. 
A converted Indian, who had informed the colonists that his 
people were making preparations for war, was killed. His 
murderers were seized, tried by a jury, of which one half 
were Indians, convicted, and hung. Panting for revenge, 
the young men of the tribe killed eight or nine of the colo- 
nists. The war that ensued was terrible. On the i^art of 
the Indians it was one of ambuscades and surprises ; and 
for many months they kept all New England in a state of 
terror. Brookfield was besieged and set fire to ; and Deer- 
field, Northfield, and other towns were destroyed.^ 

45. A treaty of peace had been made with the Narragan- 
setts, but as they gave shelter and protection to the AYam- 
panoags, it was resolved to regard them as enemies. " The 
place where they were to l»o sought was iti Rhode Island, a 
little more than eighteen miles from that Pequod fort whicli 



' One Sal)b;ith mornini'-, while the people of TTadley were at worship 
in the village church, a tall and venerable man, a stranger to them, ap- 
peared and" told tliem that the savages were coming, lie rallied the men 
and led tliem against the Indians. The savages were routed and tied ; 
but when the i)eople looketl around for their preserver, he had gone ; and 
they for some time believed that they had bef;n rescued by an angel. It 
was afterward discovered that the fall and venerable man was General 
Goffe, one of the judges who liad condemned Charles the First to be be- 
headed. He had beeii hidden in Iladley. This is the story that used to 
be told, but it has recently been disproved. 



1675 Storming of the Narragansett Fort. 77 

had been destroyed by the force imder Captain Mason, forty 

years before. According to information afterwards received 

from a captive, the Indian warriors here collected 

were no fewer than three thousand and five liun- oTST^ 

dred. They were on their guard, and had fortified Narragansett 

their hold to the best of their skill. It was on a 

solid piece of upland of five or six acres, wholly surrounded 

by a swamp. On the inner side of this natural defence, they 

had driven rows of palisades ; and the only entrance to the 

enclosure was over a rude bridge consisting of a felled tree. 

46. Having passed without shelter a very cold night, the 
English had made a march of eighteen miles through deep 
snow, scarcely halting to refresh themselves with food. In 
this condition they immediately advanced to the attack. 
The Massachusetts troops were in the van of the storming 
column, next came the two Plymouth companies, and then 
the force from Connecticut. The foremost of the assailants 
Avere received with a well-directed fire. Captain Johnson, of 
Eoxbury, was shot dead on the bridge, as he was rushing 
over it at the head of his company. Others shared his fate ; 
but, nothing discouraged by the fall of their leaders, the men 
pressed on, and a sharp conflict followed, which, with fluc- 
tuating success, lasted for two or three hours. There was 
nothing for either party but to conquer or die, enclosed 
together as they were. At length victory declared for the 
English, who finished their work by setting fire to the wig- 
wams within the fort. The military strength of the formid- 
able Narragansett tribe was irreparably broken." 

47. " Philip was hunted from spot to spot. At last, with 
a scanty band of followers, who still remained true to his 
desperate fortunes, the unhappy man wandered back to 
Mount Hope, the ancient dwelling of his fathers. Death 
Here he lurked about, like a spectre, among scenes o^ Philip, 
of former power and prosperity, now bereft of home, of 
family, and friends. Little minds are tamed and subdued by 
misfortune, but great minds rise above it. The very idea of 



78 



New England. 



1692 



submission Jiwiikencd the fury of Philip, and he smote to 
death one of his followers who proposed an expedient of peace. 
The brother of the victim made his escape, and, in revenge, 
betrayed the retreat of his chieftain. 

48. A body of white men and Indians Avere immediately 
dispatched to the swamp where Philip lay crouched, glaring 
with fury and despair. Before he was aware of their ap- 
l)roach they had begun to surround him. In a little 
while he saw five of his trustiest followers laid dead at 
his feet. All resistance was vain. He rushed forth from 
his cover and nuide a headlong attempt to escape ; Init was 
shot through the heart by a renegade Indian of his own 
nation. Such is the scanty story of the brave but unfortu- 
nate King Pliilip. " His body was cut in quarters, and his 
head was sent to Plymouth, where it was exposed on a gibbet 
for twenty years. His captive child was sold as a slave in 
Bermuda. 

49. In the year 1692, Sir William Plii])])?. a native of 
Maine, came from England with 
a commission from King Wil- 
liam, as governor of Massachu- 
setts. Within the 

Wt^if"^ft li^^^i^s ^^ ^^^^ province 

were the old colony 

of Plymouth and the territories 

of Maine and Nova Scotia. All _ __ ^-_^_ 

this region, not including New thestocks.» 

Hampshire, was now called Massachusetts. Phipps was a 
" ship carpenter and a fortune-seeker. Accustomed from 
boyhood to the axe and the oar, he had gained distinction 

' " The stocks und pillory were movable machines on wheels, and 
had no fixed position. l?oth were used as a means of enforcing attend- 
ance at church mcctinfis, or punishinu; oiTences against the church, and 
their location at its very portal served no doubt as a gentle remiiidcr to 
the congregation. It is related th.-.t in the year 175:5 a woman .stood for 
an hour" in the i)illory of the Town House, Boston, amid the scotl's aud 
jeers of the multitude." — Drake' a Old Landmarks. 




1692 



The Salem Witchcraft. 



79 



only by his wealth, the fruits of his enterprise with the div- 
ing-bell in raising treasures from a Spanish wreck." Almost 
as soon as he assumed the government he became engaged in 
a very frightful business. 

50. In the little village of Salem, now Danvers, were two 
young girls, in the family of a clergyman, who "began to 
have strange caprices. They complained of being pinched 
and pricked with pins ; and often would pretend to be seized 
with strange convulsions, and would cry out that witches 
were afflicting them." This led to a strange excitement and 
alarm. Numbers of persons were accused of the crime of 
witchcraft, and, to escape torture, con- 
fessed that they were guilty. More 
than fifty, in this way, were compelled 
to make such a confession. Twenty 
persons were put to death, and many 
others were cast into prison. This 
dreadful delusion lasted more than six 
months ; and it was not until some of 
the magistrates themselves, and even 
the governor's wife, were accused, that 
the people began to see how terribly 
they had been deceived. All the pris- 
oners were set at liberty ; " but the 
innocent dead could not be restored to 
life ; and the hill where they were exe- 
cuted will always remind people of the saddest and most 
humiliating passage in our history." 

51. "It is Avell known that no exclusive reproach can 
with justice be cast upon any part of New England on ac- 
count of a delusion which equally prevailed in the most 
enlightened countries of Europe, and received 
the countenance of the most learned and intel- 
ligent men and upright magistrates. In contem- 
plating this sorrowful page in the history of our ancestors, 
we must bear in mind that, as I have already intimated, no 




THE PILLORY. 



"Witchcraft 

in 

Europe. 



so 



J^eiD Yorlc and New Jersey. 



1609 



peculiar reproach attaches to them. They acted upon 
principles which all professed, and in which the sincere in all 
parts of Ohi'istendom. reposed an undoubting faith." 



New York and Neio Jersey. 

1, Two years after Smith and his companions had begun to 
fell the trees for the settlement of Jamestown, but eleven 
years before the Mayflower landed the Pilgrims at Ply- 
mouth, the Half-Moon, a Dutch 
ship, entered the harbor of New 

. York (lG09).i Its 
Discovery of ^ ' 

the Hudson commander, Henry 
"'''^- Hudson, was an Eng- 
lishman. In the service of his 
countrymen, Hudson had twice 
tried to find a shorter passage 
by water from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific than the one dis- 
covered by Magellan around the 
southern part of the American 
continent. Now, in the service 
of a Dutch company, he was making his third attempt. 

2. " The ship was soon visited by canoes full of native 
warriors ; but no one was suffered to come on board, though 
their oysters and beans were gladly purchased. The first of 

Europeans, Hudson, now began to explore the 

Half-Moon great river Avliich stretched before him to the 

ascending north, opening, as he hoped, the way to eastern 

seas. Slowly drifting upward with the flood-tide, 

he anchored one night just above Yonkers, in sight of ' a 




HENRY HUDSON. 



' In behalf of the French, it has been claimed, and the claim has been 
very generally allowed, that Verrazzaiii explored a part of tlie eastern 
coast Of North America in ir)24, and then discovered the Hudson river. 
Rvit tliis claim has been disputed (See the works on tlie subject bj' H. C 
Murphy and J. C. Brevoortj. 



1609 The Half-Moon Ascending the Hudson. 81 

high point of land, which showed out ' five leagues off to the 
north. The next day, a southeast wind carried him up 
rapidly through the majestic pass guarded by the frowning 







"J^-^fc.:^ 






r v-- 




THE HALF-MOON ASCENDING THE HUDSON. 



Donderberg. At nightfall he anchored his yacht near 
West Point, in the midst of the sublimest scenery of the 
mountains. 

3. The next morning was misty until the sun arose, and 
the grandeur of the overhanging highlands was again re- 
vealed. A fair south wind sprung up as the weather became 
clear, and a bright autumnal day succeeded. Kunning sixty 
miles up along the varied shores which lined the deep chan- 
nel, and delighted every moment Avitli the ever-changing 
scenery and the magnificent virgin forests which clothed the 
river-banks with their gorgeous autumnal hues, Hudson ar- 
rived towards evening opposite the loftier ' mountains which 
lie from the river's side,' and anchored the Half- Moon nea,r 



82 NeiD Yor'k and New Jersey. 1609 

Catskill landing. Here lie found a ' very loving people, and 
very old men.' 

4. The friendly natives flocked on board the yacht as 
she remained lazily at anchor the next morning, and brought 
the crew ' ears of Indian corn, and pumpkins, and tobacco,' 
which were readily bought for trifles. In the afternoon 
Hudson went six miles further up the river, and anchored 
one night near the marshes which divide the channel oppo- 
site the flourishing city Avhich now bears his name. Early the 
next morning he set sail again, and, slowly working his way 
through the shoaling channel and among the small islands 
which embarrassed navigation, anchored toward evening 
about eighteen miles further up. Here the Half-Moon re- 
mained at anchor all the next day. With the flood-tide on 
the following morning the vessel ran higher up, and an- 
chored in deep water near the site of the jiresent city of Al- 
bany. 

5. The people of the country came flocking on board, and 
brought grapes and pumpkins, and beaver and otter skins, 
which were purchased for beads, knives, and hatchets. Here 
the yacht lingered for several days. Everything now seemed 
to indicate that the Half-Moon had reached the head of ship 
navigation. The downward current was fresh and clear, the 
shoaling channel was narrow and obstructed ; yet Hudson, 
unwilling, 2)erhaps, to abandon his long-cherished hope, 
dispatched the mate, with a boat's crew, to sound the river 
higher up. After going eight or nine leagues, and finding 
' but seven feet of water and inconstant soundings,' the ex- 
ploring party returned, and reported that they had ' found it 
to be at an end for shii)ping to go in. ' Hudson now reluc- 
tantly prepared to return." 

6. The Dutch made no more attempts to find a north- 

western passage from ocean to ocean, but they sent 

first ships to the country which Hudson had discovered 

settlement, ^^j, ^jj^j^-j^ j^j^^j explored the coast from ])oth sides 

of Delaware bay to Massachusetts bay. To a company of mer- 



1614-47 Growth of the Colony. 83 

chants was given the exclusive right to trade for three years 
with all this territory. In the grant thus made the region was 
named New JSTetherlands (1614)^ Previous to this grant, how- 
ever, little fortified trading houses had been built in the prov- 
ince, one of them on the island of Manhattan. Another was 
Ijuilt just south of the present city of Albany, which brought 
the Dutch in friendly relations with the Mohawks, the most 
easterly tribe of the Iroquois {ir-o-hiuoiz') , or Five Nations. 

7. A few years later thirty families arrived from Holland. 
Several of these settled at Orange, now Albany, while " a 
party under the command of May, who has left his name on 
the southern county and cape of New Jersey," ascended the 
Delaware river and on its eastern bank built a fort. In 1626, 
Peter Min'-u-it came as the governor of New Netherlands. 
He soon contracted with the Indians for the purchase of 
Manhattan island, giving beads, buttons, and other glitter- 
ing trinkets, to the value of about twenty-four dollars, for 
more than twenty thousand acres of land. Fort Amsterdam 
was built, and about this centre wooden huts, with roofs of 
straw and chimneys of wood, soon began to cluster. 

8. The growth of the colony was not rapid, although 
every individual who succeeded in forming a settlement of 
fifty persons had a large tract of land granted to him. 
These land-holders were called jjatroons ; and in 

quite recent times the claims of their descendants of the°colony 
to rent, led to the anti-rent troubles in the State 
of New York. Minuit was succeeded by the renowned Wou- 
ter Van TAvil'-ler, and he, in turn, by Kieft {Iceeft) ; and all 
this time there were disputes with the English settlers on the 
Connecticut. The Dutch had first explored the river, and 
even occupied its banks. There were disputes, too, with the 
Swedes, who had planted a colony in the southern part of New 
Netherlands. There were also troubles with the Indians. 

9. The prosperity of the colony dates from the arrival, in 



' Brodhead spells the name New Netherland, in the singular form. 



84 



Neio York and New jersey. 



1647-55 



1647, of the brave and honest Peter Stnyvesant {sti'-ve- 
sant), the last of the Dutch governors. In his early military 
career he had lost a leg, which was replaced by a wooden one 




(1655) ; 
cnlturc, 



and 
as AV 



tried 
ell as 



with silver bands, giving rise to 
the tradition that he wore a silver 
leg. As governor of New Nether- 
lands he made peace with the 
English settlers in Connecticut 
and Avith the Indians ; he subdued 
the Swedes on the Delaware 
in every Avay to encourage trade and agri- 
to induce people to join the settlement.^ 



' In 1C98, the Earl of Bellamont became governor. As commerce 
was greatly disturbed by pirates, lie sent out a bold eai>tain named Kidd, 
to capture their vessels ; but Kidd was a l)ad man, and kiif)\viii,u: that 
Kidd there were very man_v Spanish ships carrying across the 
ocean gold, silver, and other treasures from America, lie 
determined to turn pirate himself. He continued on this career for 
several years, and is said to have o])tained immense (juantities of gold 
and rich treasures, some of which he is reported to have buried on 



1664 New Neilwrlands Lost. 85 

10. These dangers were scarcely settled before a new and 
greater one appeared ; for Charles the Second, caring noth- 
ing for the claims of the Dutch, granted to his brother, the 
Duke of York, all the country from the Connec- The 
ticut river to Delaware bay ; and a fleet was sent "^"^^^l^*^^® 
to take possession of it. When the fleet appeared Netherlands, 
before New Amsterdam, the citizens, hoping for greaiter priv- 
ileges under English rule, were unwilling to make any 
defense. But Stuyvesant, faithful to his trust to the last, re- 
luctantly, and not till the English were in actual possession 
of the town, was compelled to march out of the fort and 
surrender New jSTetherlands. With this change of masters, 
New Amsterdam, having a population of fifteen hundred 
souls speaking eighteen different languages, changed its name 
to New York, and Fort Orange was presently called Albany 
(1G64). Ill less than ten years after, while England was at 
war with Holland, the Dutch regained their former posses- 
sions, but, after fifteen months, returned them to the Eng- 
lish. ^ 

11. In the course of its colonial history, New Jersey passed 
through many ownerships. The claim of the English king 
Henry VII. came first, by reason of the discoveries of the 



Long Island and in otiier parts of the country. At last he was seized 
and sent to England, where he suffered death for his crimes (1701). His 
buried treasures have been sought for at various places. 

' In consequence of the arbitrary conduct of .Tames II., a revo- 
lution took place in England ; the king fled to France, and the 
English crown was bestowed upon William and Mary (l()88-9). The 
news of these proceedings was received in New York witli demon- 
strations of satisfaction. Jacob Leisler, aided by several 
hundred armed men, and with the general approliation of Leisler 
the citizens, took possession of the fort there in the name MiuJorne 
of the new sovereigns. He continued at the head of affairs, 
managing with prudence and energy, for more than two j'ears, his son- 
in-law, Milborne, acting as his deputy. On the arrival of Governor 
Sloughter, bearing a commission direct from William and Mary, Leisler 
surrendered all authority. This would not satisfy his enemies ; they 
were bent upon his destruction. So he and Milborne were arrested, 
tried on a charge of treason, and condemned to death. Sloughter, while 
drunk at a feast, signed the death warrant, and l)oth men were executed 



86 New York and New Jersey. 1664 

younger Cabot. Then, as part of New Netherlands, it Avas a 
Dutch possession. Then, by a gift from King Charles the 
Second, it, Avith New York, became the property 
ersey. ^^ ^|^^ Duke of York. It was next sold to Lord 
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret,^ receiving its name in honor 
of Sir George, who, as governor of the little island of Jersey, 
in the British channel, had defended it for the king's father, 
Charles I., during that monarch's contest with the parliament. 
Then, Berkeley selling his interest to two Quakers, New 
Jersey was owned by three persons. Again,, for a period of 
thirteen months, the Dutch were in possession ; and then the 
English. English proprietors effected a division of the terri- 
tory into eastern and western portions, one of the parts be- 
ing called East Jersey, and the other West Jersey. By pur- 
chase (in 1682), the province became the property of twelve 
Quakers, of whom William Penn was one ; but tAventy years 
of rule were twenty years of strife and trouble, and the 
Quakers finally surrendered their powers of government to 
the crown. New Jersey, as a royal province, was united to 
NeAv York, and so continued for thirty-six years.'' 

12. We have seen that the Dutch built a fort on the east 
bank of the Delaware, in Ncav Jersey. A number of fami- 
lies, Dutch and SAvedes, also made their homes in the prov- 
ince, the former in the eastern part, the latter in the south- 
western part. But the actual colonization of New Jersey did 
not commence before 1664. In that year, some Puritans 



' Berkeley and Carteret Avere already the proprietors of Carolina. 

"^ In 1674, Sir Edmund Andros was appointed governor of New York, 
and received its surrender by the Dutch after their tifteen months' repos- 
session of it. In 1()80 he seized the government of East Jersey, depriv- 
ing the governor, Pliilip Carteret, brotlier of the jiroprietor, of his otiice. 
In'^lOSl lie was recalled to p]ngland. New England havinsr been consoli- 
dated, he was appointed its governor in l(J8(j. In KKSH, New York and 
New Jersey were added to his jurisdiction. (Brodhead's History of New 
York, andPalfrey's of Ncav England, treat the story of the lescue of the 
Connecticut Charter and its concealment in the hollow of a tree as a 
" tradition." Palfrey says : " No writing of the period alludes to this 
remarkable occurrence." 



1632 Lord Baltimore. 87 

from New England, who liad dwelt for a time on Long 
Island, left the island and established themselves at Eliza- 
bethtown, now Elizabeth ; and there the first governor, Car- 
teret, brother of the proprietor, took up his abode. ^ 



Maryland. 

13. Among the notable persons in attendance at the court 
of James I. was Sir George Calvert, distinguished for his 
learning and benevolence. Becoming a Roman Catholic, he 
freely confessed the same to the king, and resigned j^o^d 
a high office which he was holding at the time. Baltimore. 
Two acts of James showed that Calvert continued to be held 
in esteem by that monarch notwithstanding the latter's con- 
version to the Catholic Church. The title of Lord Baltimore 
was conferred upon Calvert, and to him also was given a large 
part of the island of Newfoundland. " How zealous Calvert 
was in selecting suitable emigrants for his Newfoundland col- 
ony, how earnest to promote order and industry, how lavishly 
he expended his estate in advancing the interests of his settle- 
ment, — is related by those who have written of his life." 
But his efforts, owing to the severe cold of the climate — 
' ' both land and sea were frozen the greater part of the time ' ' 
— were not rewarded with success ; and he asked for an un- 
cultivated domain in a warmer climate. This request was 
granted, not, however, by King James, but by his successor. 



^ The opposition of Massachusetts to the "Navigation Act," and 
other obnoxious laws of Parliament, displeased the king, Charles II. , and 
he declared her charter void. His death occurring not long after, his 
successor, .Tames II., pursued the same arbitrary policy, and, in 1686, de- 
prived Massachusetts of her charter government. In the same year An- 
dros was appointed roj'al governor of New England. These proceedings 
on the part of King James rendered him so unpopular, that, when the 
news of the English Revolution and of his dethronement reached Boston, 
in 1689, it caused great rejoicing. Andros and his officers, whose tyranny 
had made them odious to the people, were seized and sent to England, 
when the New England colonies established their former modes of gov- 
ernment. (See \ 39, p. 74.) 



88 Maryland. 1634 

Charles I. The patent was duly prepared, hut before it 
could receive the king's name and seal. Lord Baltimore died, 
and it was then issued to his oldest son, who by the English 
law of inheritance received the title as well as the estate of 
his father (1632). ' 

14. " Lord Baltimore was unwilling to take upon himself 
the sole risk of colonizing his province. Others joined with 
him in the adventure ; and, all difficulties being overcome, 

his two brothers, of whom Leonard Calvert was 

Commence- 
ment of appointed his lieutenant, embarked themselves for 

CO oniza ion. j^^^ voyage in the good shij) Ark, and a pinnace 
called the Dove. It was not till the last week of Febru- 
ary (1G34) that they arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia ; 
where, in obedience to the express letters of King Charles, 
they were welcomed with courtesy and humanity by Governor 
Harvey. The governor offered them Aviiat Virginia had 
obtained so slowly, and at so much cost, from England : cat- 
tle, and hogs, and poultry ; two or three hundred stocks 
already grafted with apples and pears, peaches and cherries. 
Clayborne, who had begun a trade in furs with the Indians 
under a license from the king, also appeared, predicting the 
hostility of the natives. 

15. After a week's kind entertainment, the adventurers 
bent their course to the north, and entered the Potomac. 
Under an island, which can now hardly be recognized with 
certainty, the Ark came to an anchor ; while Calvert, with 
the Dove, ascended the stream. At about forty-seven leagues 
above the mouth of the river, he came upon the village of 
Pis-cat'-a-qua, an Indian settlement nearly opposite Mount 
Vernon, where he found an Englishman, who had lived many 



' " It was intended, it is said, that the country frranted by this charter 
should have been called Cirs^rentia ; but when it was presented to the king 
(Charles I., of England) for his signature, in conformity to his majesty's 
wishes the name of the province was changed to that of Maryland, in 
honor of his queen, Henrietta Maria, a daughter of the great king Henry 
TV. of France."— Bozman's Jlist. of Mui-yland. 



1634 Goinmeiicement of Colonization. 89 

years among tlie Indians as a trader and spoke tlieir language 
well. With him for an interpreter, a parley was held with 
them. To the request for leave for the new comers to sit 
down in his country, the chieftain of the tribe would neither 
bid them go nor stay. ' They might use their own discre- 
tion. ' 

16. Taking with him the trader, Calvert went down the 
river, examining the creeks and estuaries nearer the Chesa- 
peake. He entered the branch which is now called St. 
Mary's ; and, about four leagues from its junction with the 
Potomac, anchored at an Indian town. The native inhabi- 
tants, having suffered from the superior power of the Sus- 
quehannas, who occupied the district between that river and 
Delaware bay, had already resolved to move into places of 
more security ; and many of them had already begun to mi- 
grate. It was easy, by presents of cloth and axes, of hoes 
and knives, to gain their good-will, and to purchase their 
rights to the soil which they were preparing to abandon. 

17. On the twenty-fifth, the day of the Annunciation, in 
the island under which their great ship, the Ark, lay moored, 
a Jesuit priest, who was of the party, offered the sacrifice of 
the mass, which, in that region of the world, had never been 
celebrated before. This being ended, he and his assistants 
took upon their shoulders the great cross which they had 
hewn from a tree. Going in procession to the place that had 
been designated, the governor (Calvert) and other Catholics, 
and some Protestants as well participating in the ceremony, 
they erected the cross as a trophy to Christ the Saviour, while 
the litany of the holy cross was chanted humbly on tlieir 
bended knees. ^ 

18. The Indian women taught the wives of the new comers 
to make bread of maize. The warriors of the tribe instructed 
the huntsmen how rich the forests of America were in game, 

• The town purchased of tlie Indians was called by the settlers St. 
Mary's. It was anticipated that it would become a great city. None of 
the houses then built now remain, nor is there even a village there. 



90 Maryland. 

and joined them in the chase. As the phmters had come into 
possession of ground ah-eady subdued, they at once phmted 
cornfields and gardens. No sufferings were endured. No 
fears of want arose. The foundation of the colony of Mary- 
land was peacefully and happily laid ; and in six months it 
advanced more than Virginia in as many years. 

19. Toleration grew up in the province silently, as a cus- 
tom of the land. Through the benignity of the administra- 
tion, no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ was per- 
mitted to be molested on account of religion. Koman 
Catholics, who were oppressed by the laws of England, were 
sure to find a peaceful asylum on the north bank of the Poto- 
mac ; and there, too, Protestants were sheltered against 
Protestant intolerance. From the first, men of foreign Inrth 
were encouraged to plant, and enjoyed equal advantages with 
those of the English and Irish nations. Such were the beau- 
tiful auspices under which Maryland started into being." 

20. There ought to have been peace in the colony, but there 
was not. From the first, Clayborne, who had established a 
trading post on the largest island in Chesapeake bay, refused 

Clayborne's ^0 acknowledge the authority of Governor Cal- 
ciaim. vert, and defended his claim by force of arms ; 
but he was defeated and obliged to flee. Afterward, however, 
he returned, and made himself master of the province, com- 
pelling the governor, in his turn, to flee into Virginia for 
safety. Calvert the next year appeared at the head of a mili- 
tary force and regained possession of his government. 

21. While Cromwell and his Puritan associates were a power 

in England, the Protestant party obtained control of affairs 

in Maryland, and, by an act of the Assembly, Catholics were 

declared not entitled to the protection of the laws 
Civil war. , ,, , r^ • j • i 

of the colony. This measure caused a civil war 

between the Catholics and the Protestants, After Crom- 
well's death, the rights of Lord Baltimore were restored, and 
the colony enjoyed a long repose. Like Virginia, it was " a 
colony of planters. Its staple was tobacco. A state house 
was built at a cost of forty thousand pounds of tobacco." 



William Penn. 



91 



22. During tlie revolution in England tliat placed Wil- 
liam, Prince of Orange, and his wife Mary, on the throne, the 
peace of Maryland was again disturbed. An armed associa^ 
tion gained possession of the government in the Further 
names of William and Mary, and Maryland, by the history, 
act of the king, was made a royal province. Tjord Baltimore 
and his heirs were thus deprived of their rights till 1715, 
when the fourth Lord Baltimore, then a very young child, 
had his claim as the j^roprietor of the colony acknowledged by 
George I.^ 



Pennsylvania and Delaware. 



William Penn. 



23. We have already spoken of William Penn (see p. 8(3). 

Although brought up in wealth 
and luxury, he soon learned " to 
despise all vanities and 
all avarice," and join- 
ed the new sect called Quakers, or 
Friends, of Avhom Cromwell said : 
•' They are a people whom I can- 
not win with gifts, honors, offices, 
or places. " By becoming a Quak- 
er, Penn incurred the displeasure 
of his father ; and he suffered 
much ill-treatment, even to im- 
prisonment, from agents of the 
government. The death of. his father, who had distinguished 




WILLIAM PENN. 



' The northern boundary of Maryland is known as Mason and Dixon's 
Line. The line separates Pennsylvania from the former slave slates, 
Maryland and Virginia. " It was run, witii the exception of about 
twenty-two miles, by Charles Mason and .Jeremiah Dixon, two English 
mathematicians and surveyors, between November 15th, 1763, and De- 
cember 26th, 1767. During the excited debate in Congress in 1820, on 
the question of excluding slavery from Missouri, the eccenti-ic John 
Randolph, of Roanoke, Va., made great use of the phrase, Muson and 
Dixon's Line, which was caught up and re-echoed by every newspaper 
in the land, and thus gained a proverbial celebrity which it still retains. ' 



92 Pennsylvania and Delaware. 

himself in tlio history of Enghmd l)y the conquest of Jamaica, 
and had been admiral of the British navy, left him a claim 
against the government for sixteen thousand pounds. 

24. Desiring to found a colony where civil and religious 
liberty might dwell together in peace, Penn applied for a 
grant of land west of the Delaware river. " To the prodigal 
Charles II., always embarrassed for money, the grant of the 
province seemed the easiest way" of cancelling the claim 
which Penn had inherited. A charter was accordingly 
obtained. It was Penn's design at first to call the territory 
New Wales, but afterward he suggested the word Sylvania, as 
suitable for a land covered with forests. The king, however, 
would not consent to this, but at last prefixed the word 
Penn, in honor, as he said, of his late friend, the admiral. 
This, instead of pleasing Penn, made him think that people 
would accuse him of being vain ; and he offered twenty 
guineas to the king's secretary to have the name changed. 

25. Previous to this — more than forty years before — Gusta- 
vus Adolphus, the brave king of Sweden, proposed to found 
in America " a free state, where the laborer should reap the 

„, fruit of his toil, where the rights of conscience 

Swedes in should be inviolate, and which should be ojien 
^ ■ to the whole Protestant world." A Hollander pre- 
sented himself to the king, and laid before him a proposition 
for a trading company, to be established in Sweden, its opera- 
tions to extend to Asia, Africa, and America. Full power 
was accordingly given to carry out this project, but before the 
necessary arrangements could be made, the German war and 
the king's death occurred, which caused the work to be laid 
aside, "and the whole project seemed about to die with the 
king. But just as it appeared to be at its end, it received 
new life. 

26. Another Hollander, by the name of Peter Minuit,^ 
made his appearance in Sweden. He had been in the service 

' Other Avriters speak of Minuit as a native of Germany (see p. 83). 



1638 Conquest hy 8t'uyvesant. 93 

of Holland, in America, but had been recalled home and dis- 
missed from service. He was not, however, discouraged by 
this, and went over to Sweden, where he renewed the repre- 
sentations in regard to the excellence of the new country, and 
the advantages that Sweden might derive from it. Queen 
Christina, then a child of only eleven years of age, who had 
succeeded her royal father in the government, was glad to 
have the project thus renewed. 

27. As a good beginning, the first colony was sent off, and 
Minuit was placed over it, as being best acquainted in those 
regions. They set sail in a ship-of-war, followed by a smaller 
vessel, both laden with people, provisions, ammunition, and 
merchandise suitable for traffic and gifts to the Indians. 
The ships reached their places of destination ; and the high 
expectations which the emigrants had formed of that new 
land were well met by the first views which they enjoyed of 
it. They made their first landing on the bay or entrance to 
the river Poutaxat, whicli they called the river of New Swe- 
den. A purchase of land was immediately made from the 
Indians. Posts were driven into the ground as landmarks ; 
and a deed was drawn up for the land thus purchased. This 
was written in Dutch, because no Swede was yet able to inter- 
pret the language of the heathen. The Indians subscribed 
their marks ; and the writing was sent home to Sweden, to be 
preserved in the royal archives" (1638). 

28. The country thus bought of the Indians was named 
New Sweden. The Swedes made a settlement near where 
Wilmington now is, and their colony began to prosj)er ; but 
they were not permitted to enjoy their new homes 

in peace. The Dutch regarded the settlement as claim— Con- 

an intrusion upon their territory of New Nether- ^^^st by 
^ '' . Stuyvesant. 

lands, and molested the new comers in various 

ways. At length, after a period of more than twenty-five 

years, Governor Stuyvesant, with a force of six hundred men, 

proceeded against the Swedes, and compelled them to submit 

to the Dutch government (1G55). (See p. 84.) 



94 Pennsylvania and Delaware. 1682 

29. We have seen how the Dutch, in turn, were compelled 
to surrender New Netherlands, including Delaware. Penn, 
on the eve of his departure for America, extended his posses- 
sions, by obtaining from the Duke of York the 

united to duke's title to the " three lower counties, now 

Pennsyl- formino; tlie state of Delaware." Several ships 
vania. ® . , • , 

with emigrants, chieily Quakers, came over in. 

1681 and 1682. Penn himself landed in 1682. In conform 
mity with his instructions, a site for a city had already been 
selected. This city, he said, "' shall be called Phihideli)]iia,- a 
name which means brotherly love." He treated all the set- 
tlers with kindness and liberality, and took great pains to 
show the Indians that he was their friend. 

30. Beneath aAvide spreading elm tree Penn met the chiefs 
and warriors in council, and made his famous " treaty of 
peace and friendship." The scene is thus described by one 

Penn's ^^^^^ ^^^^ written a life of the great Quaker : " It 
great is near the close of November, — the lofty trees on 
rea y. ^^^^ banks of the Delaware have shed their sum- 
mer attire, the ground is strewed with leaves, and the council 
fire burns brightly, fanned by the autumnal breeze. Under 
the wide-branching elm the Indian tribes are assembled, but 
all unarmed, for no warlike weapon is allowed to disturb the 
scene. In front are tlie cliiefs, with their counsellors and 
aged men on either hand. Behind them, in the form of a 
half moon, sit the young men, and some of the aged mat- 
rons ; while beyond, and disposed in still widening circles, 
are seen the youth of ])oth sexes. Among tlie assembled 
chiefs there is one who holds a conspicuous rank — the Greai 
Sachem Tam-i-nend, one of nature's noblenuin, revered for 
his wisdom, and beloved for his goodness. 

31. But see ! a barge is approaching, bearing at its mast- 
head the broad pennant of the governor (Penn). The oars are 
plied with measured strokes, and near the helm sits William 
Penn attended by his council. On the river's bank, waiting 
with others to join them, is the hospitable Swede, whose 



PenrC s Great Treaty. 95 

dwelling is near the treaty ground. They land and advance 
towards the conncil fire. They pause. Taminend jiuts on 
his chaplet, surmounted by a small horn, the emblem of 
kingly power, and then, tlirough an interpreter, he announces 
to William Penn that the nations are ready to hear him. 

32. Being thus called upon, Penn begins his speech : 
' The Grreat Spirit, ' he says, ' who made me and you, who 
rules the heavens and the earth, and who knows the inner- 
most thoughts of men, knows that I and my friends have a 
hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with you, and 
serve you to the utmost of our power. It is not our custom 
to use hostile weapons against our fellow creatures, for which 
reason we have come unarmed. Our object is not to do 
injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. 

33. We are met on the broad pathway of good faith and 
good will, so that no advantage is to be taken on either side, 
but all to be openness, brotherhood, and love. I shall not call 
you children or brothers only, for parents are apt to whip their 
children too severely, and brothers sometimes will differ. 
Neither will I comjiare the friendship between us to a chain, 
for the rain may rust it, or a tree may fall and break it. But 
I will consider you as the same flesh and blood with the 
Christians, and the same as if one man's body were to be 
divided into two parts.' 

34. This speech being listened to by the Indians in per- 
fect silence and with much gravity, they take some time to 
deliberate, and then the king orders one of his chiefs to speak 
to Penn. The Indian orator advances, and in the king's 
name salutes him. Then, taking him by the hand, he makes 
a speech, pledging kindness and good neighborhood, and that 
the Indians and English must live in love as long as tlie sun 
and moon shall endure." ^ 



' The tree under which the treaty was made stood in what was after- 
ward Ivnown as Kensington, but which is now a part of the city of Phila- 
delphia. When the British were quartered near it during the war of 
American Independence, their general so respected it, that, when his 



96 



North and South Carolina. 



been truly said, "was never 
The Quakers never abused or 



35. "This treaty," it has 
sworn to and never broken." 
cheated the natives, and 
Subsequent c o n s e q uently 
history, there were no 
Indian wars in the territo- , 
ries which they settled. 
" Not a drop of Quaker 
blood was ever shed by an 
Indian." Penn made two 
visits to England ; and at 
his death, which occurred 
there, he left his American 
possessions to his sons, by 
whom the government was 
managed, most of the time 
through deputies, till the 
Eevolution. Finally their claims were purchased 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 




TIIEATY JIONUJIENT. 



by the 



North and South Carolina. 

36. In looking for the circumstances that gave to Carolina 
its name, we come to the first attempt to settle the region. 
Some French Protestants, known as Huguenots, with Ribault 
{re-I>o) as their leader, entered the commodious haven of 
Port Eoyal and so named it. " When they landed, all was 
„, solitude. The frightened Indians had fled, Init 

Huguenots in they lured them back with knives, beads, and 

aro ma. jooking-glasses, and enticed two of them on board 
their ships. Here, by feeding, clothing, and caressing them, 
they tried to wean them from their fears ; but the captive war- 



soldiers were cuttiiiE: down every tree for firewood, he placed a sentinel 
under it that not a hrancli of it niii,dit he touehed. A few years atrn (in 
ISIO) it was l)l()wn down, wlicn it was split into wood, and many ciijis, 
bowls, and other articles were made of it to be kept as memorials. A 
mouuraeut marks tlj«.; spot wUeic the tree stOQ(J, 



1562 The Huguenots in Carolina. 97 

riors moaned and lamented day and night, till Ribault, with 
the prudence and humanity which seem always to character- 
ize him, gave over his purpose of carrying them to France, 
and set them ashore again (1562). 

37. Preliminary exploration, not immediate settlement, had 
been the object of the voyage ; but all was still rose color in 
the eyes of the voyagers, and many of their number would 
fain linger in the New Canaan. Eibault was more than will- 
ing to humor them. He mustered his company on deck, 
and made them a stirring harangue. He appealed to their 
courage and their patriotism, told them how from a mean 
origin men rise by enterprise and daring to fame and fortune, 
and demanded who among them would stay behind and hold 
Port Royal for the king. The greater part came forward, of 
whom thirty were chosen. 

38. A fort was forthwith begun, on a small stream, which 
they named Charlesfort — the Carolina — in honor of Charles 
IX. of France. But how were they to subsist ? Their thought 
was not of subsistence, but of gold. Of the thirty, the 
greater number were soldiers and sailors, with a few gen- 
tlemen, that is to say, men of the sword, born within the pale 
of nobility, who at home could neither labor nor trade with- 
out derogation from their rank." Famine, contention, and 
homesickness were the consequence. " But how to escape? 
A continent was their solitary prison, and the pitiless Atlan- 
tic closed the egress. Not one of them knew how to build a 
ship ; but Ribault had left them a forge, with tools and 
iron ; and strong desire supplied the place of skill. Trees 
were hewn down and the work begun. 

39. All, gentle and simple, labored Avith equal zeal. They 
calked the seams with the long moss which hung in profusion 
from the trees ; the pines supplied them with pitch ; the 
Indians made for them a kind of cordage ; and for sails they 
sewed together their shirts and bedding. At length a brigan- 
tine worthy of Robinson Crusoe floated on the waters. They 
laid in what provisions they might, gave .^11 that remained to 



98 North and South Carolina. 

the delighted Indians, embarked, descended the river, and 
put to sea." ^ 

4-0. " To sujipose that Sir Walter Raleigh's efforts accom- 
plished nothing, because he did not actually plant an abiding 
colony in North Carolina, would be unjust to him, as well as 

,,, , sadly to violate the truth of history. His zeal and 
Albemarle •' 

and ciaren- enterprise prompted otliers to pursue the path in 
^' which, with so much loss, he had been the bold 
pioneer." In IGG;), Charles II. granted to Lord Clarendon 
and other English noblemen a vast territory south of Vir- 
ginia. In honor of the Duke of Albenuirle, one of the grant- 
ees, a settlement previously made on the Ciiowan river, by 
emigrants from Virginia, who would not obey the church rules 
prescribed in Virginia, was called the Albemarle County 
Colony. Another settlement, begun near "Wilmington, by 
planters from Bar-ba'-does, was called the '' Clarendon County 
Colony." 

41. John Locke, the most eminent philosopher of his time, 
was engaged to draw up a charter and scheme of government 

The for tlie new province. It was to be, the proprietors 
Grand Model, thought, a populous empire. A constitution 
was accordingly proposed, which became known as the 
" Grand Model ;" but it was so poorly adapted to the wants 
of the settlers, that it never Avent into full effect, and was 
finally abandoned by the proprietors (1693.) 

42. In 1G70, a third colony was planted in Carolina. It was 

^. . . on the western bank of the Ashley river : but, ten 

Division 1 ,, 1 J- i. 

of the years after, was removed to a better location, at 

province, ^j^^ junction of that stream with the Cooper river. 

' The sufferings which thej^ endured on the voyage, because of their 
want of food, were frightful "; but a remnant of their numl)er at length 
reached France. " One day, while at sea, they cast lots for the life of 
one of their number, who was sacrificed, and his flesh divided equally." 
— F(N'rh(ni/.s' Illstiirn of Florido. 

It will be noticed that Parkman says that thirty persons were left at 
Port Royal by IJibauU. Other authoVs say twenty-si.v. Parkman, who 
is excellent authority, also spells the name of the Huguenot Captain 
without the I — thus, Kibaut. 



1732 Settlement of Georgia. 99 

Thus the first settlement was made in South Carolina, and 
the foundation of Charleston was laid. About fifty years 
later Carolina became a royal province, the king, George II., 
having purchased the proprietors' rights. North Carolina 
and South Carolina then, as royal provinces, began their sepa- 
rate existence (1729). 

Georgia. 

43. '' Each year, in Great Britain, at least four thousand 
unhappy men," says Bancroft, " were put into prison for the 
misfortune of poverty. The subject won the attention of 
James Oglethorpe, a member of the British parlia- „ . 
ment ; and to him, in the annals of legislative for the 
philanthropy, the honor is due of having first settlement, 
resolved to lighten the lot of debtors. Touched with the 
sorrows whicli the walls of a prison could not hide from him, 
he searched into the gloomy horrors of jails " ; and was the 
means of " restoring to light and freedom multitudes who, 
by long confinement for debt, were strangers and helpless in 
the country of their birth. He did more." For them, as 
well as for others who were poor, distressed, or persecuted, 
" he planned a new destiny in America, where former poverty 
or misfortune would be no rej)roach. " 

44. To him and to others, twenty-one in all, the king, 
George II., granted, for a term of twenty-one years, " in trust 
for the poor," as the charter stated, all the country be- 
tween the Savannah and the Altamaha (al-ta-ma- „ _, 

7 ;\ r\ 1 l^ i i t • , Settlement 

haw ). Oglethorpe embarked with more than a of 

hundred emigrants ; and, ascending a river, on a ^*'^^°°*^- 

high bluff he laid the foundation of a town, which received 

the name of Savannah. The new province was called 

Georgia, in honor of the king (1733). " Next year the colony 

was joined by about a hundred German Protestants. The 

colonists received this addition to their numbers with joy. A 

place of residence was chosen for them which the devout and 



100 Georgia. 

thankful strangers named Ebenezer. The river and the hills, 
they said, reminded them of home. They applied themselves 
with steady industry to the cultivation of indigo and silk, and 
they prospered." 

45. There came to Georgia " the two brothers, John and 

Charles Wesley. John, the founder of the sect of Methodists, 

was even then, although a very young man, a preacher of un- 

usual promise. He burned to spread the Gospel 

and among the settlers and their Indian neighbors. He 

Whitefieid. gpent two years in Georgia, but these were unsuc- 
cessful years. Then he returned to England to begin his great 
career, with the feeling that his residence in Georgia had been 
of much value to him, but of very little to the people whom 
he sought to benefit. Just as he reached England, his fellow- 
laborer, George Whitefield {liwW -feelcl), sailed for Georgia. 
There were now (1737) little settlements spreading inland, 
and Whitefield visited these, bearing to them the word of life. 
He founded and maintained an orphan home in Savannah, 
visited all the provinces from Florida to the northern fron- 
tier, and made his grave in New England." His eloquence 
was wonderful ; his voice powerful, rich, and sw^eet. Said 
Dr. Franklin : ''When Whitefield was preaching in the open 
air, more than thirty thousand persons might hear him dis- 
tinctly." 

4:6. Emigrants continued to arrive, including Swiss and 
Scotch ; but while the colony thus increased in numbers, the 
bright anticipations of plenty and comfort which had been 
Further indulged in, were not, for a long time, realized, 
history, ''phis was owing in large part to the poverty and 
idle habits of the English settlers. Besides, the regulations 
of the trustees were not suited to the condition and needs of 
the people. Trouble, too, came from their neighbors on the 
South. The Spaniards, in Florida, looking upon the Savan- 
nali settlement as an encroachment upon their territory, hos- 
tilities ensued between the rival colonies ; but Oglethorpe, 
who was a good general and a brave soldier, made a successful 



European Wars. 101 

defense. The trustees governed till 1752, when wearied with 
their charge, they gave up their charter, and Georgia became 
a royal province. Eleven years later all the lands between 
the Altamaha and St. Mary's were annexed to Georgia by a 
royal proclamation. The western limit was the Pacific ocean. 



European Wars that affected the Colonies. 

1. During the colonial period, there were three wars in 
which England was engaged on the one side and France on 
the other, that disturbed the peace of the colonists and enlist- 
ed their aid in behalf of the " mother country," as England 
was affectionately called. In the first of these, known as 
King WiUia>n's War, an expedition, fitted out by Massachu- 
setts and commanded by Sir William Phip^os, captured Port 
Eoyal, in Nova Scotia, and returned to Boston with a large 
amount of plunder ; but at the close of the war the place was 
given back to the French (1689-1697). In the second contest, 
known as Queen Anne's War, Port Royal was again cap- 
tured, when its name was changed to Annapolis, in honor of 
the queen, and Acadia was annexed to the British realm 
(1702-1713). 

2. In the last contest, known as Ki?ig George's War, the 
fortress of Louisburg, the " Gibraltar of America," was cap- 
tured after a long siege, by New England troops and an Eng- 
lish fleet ; but the treaty of peace at the close of the war 
restored Louisburg to the French (1744-1748). In all these 
struggles, the French were aided by their Indian allies in 
Canada. The English had at times the assistance of the war- 
like Iroquois (e'-ro-quah) or Five Nations. New York, New 
Hampshire, and Massachusetts, were the greater sufferers, 
they being nearer to Canada. Bodies of French and Indians 
made incursions from Canada, fell upon the defenseless vil- 
lages, and murdered or carried into captivity the helpless in- 
habitants. Of the Iroquois Parkman says : 



102 The French and Indian War. 1753 

3. " Foremost in Avar, foremost in eloquence, foremost in 
tlieir savage arts of policy, stood the fierce people called by the 
French the Iroquois. They occupied Central New York, but 

extended their conquests and their depredations 
roquois. i^^^^^ Quebec to the Carolinas, and from the west- 
ern prairies to the forests of Maine. They consisted of five 
tribes or nations — the Mohawks, the Oneidas, tlie Onondagas, 
the Cayugas, and the Senecas (to which a sixth, the Tusca- 
roras, was added in 1715). 

4. Both reason and tradition point to the conclusion that 
the Iroquois formed, originally one undivided people. Sun- 
dered, like countless other tribes, by dissensions, caprice, or 
the necessities of the hunter-life, tliey separated into live dis- 
tinct nations. At length, says tradition, a celestial being, 
incarnate on earth, counseled them to compose their strife 
and unite in a league of defense and aggression. Another 
personage — wholly mortal, yet wonderfully endowed — a re- 
nowned warrior and a mighty magician, stands, with his liair 
of writhing snakes, grotesquely conspicuous through the dim 
light of tradition, at this birth of Iroquois nationality. This 
was At-o-tar-ho, a chief of the Onondagas ; and from this 
honored source has sprung a long line of chieftains, heirs not 
to the blood alone, but to the name of their great predeces- 
sor." 

The French and Indian War. 

5. The three wars just alluded to had their origin in 
European att'airs. In 1753, however, a difficulty sprung uj) 
between the French and English colonists in America, 

The respecting the l)oundaries beween their respective 
French claim, territories. Tbe French entertained the project of 
possessing the whole of the vast region of the west, the valley 
of the Mississippi, to which La Salle had given the name of 
Louisiana. " Not a fountain bubbled on the west of the 
Alleghanies but was claimed as being within the French 



1753 Washington's Mission. 103 

empire. Every brook that flowed to the Ohio was French 
water." To secure this region to the French, forts had been 
built at suitable places. Along the line of the St. Lawrence, 
at the great lakes, and by the Mississippi, more than sixty 
military posts were established, beside missionary agencies. 
The total population of this valley, excluding Indians, may 
have been at the time we speak of, seven or eight thousand 
persons, of whom half at least were negroes. 

6. The English claim to the territory was based on the dis- 
coveries of their navigators, the Cabots. This, if valid, gave 
them a prior right to the country. The French, however, 
deemed this an absurd claim ; since the Cabots _, 
knew nothing of those vast inland regions which English 
French missionaries and explorers had, with in- 
credible difficulty, perseverance, and hardships, discovered 
and settled. For years these rival claims were urged ; but 
the crisis did not arrive till 1753. 

7. At this time there was in existence a company, mostly 
Virginians, that had obtained a grant of land on and near the 
Ohio river, for the purpose of trading with the Indians and 
of settling the country. This was called the Ohio x^e 
Company. The French, in large force, began to 0^^° Company. 
occujDy the Ohio valley, and, for the protection of their 
movements, to establish posts at Erie ^nd other places. 
They also seized three British traders (1753). 

8. Complaint was made to Eobert Dinwiddle, lieutenant- 
governor of Virginia and a member of the Ohio Company, of 
these acts ; and it was resolved to send " a person of distinc- 
tion to the commander of the French forces, to Washing- 
know his reasons for invading the British domin- ^^^'^ mission, 
ions." The envoy chosen was George Washington, then 
about twenty-two years of age, but already noted for his pru~ 
dence and energy. He was a surveyor by profession, and, in 
the exercise of his calling, had become familiar with the wil- 
derness. In the militia service, he had reached the rank of 
major. The task imposed upon Washington was a very ditfi- 



104 Tlie French and Indian War. 1754 

cult one. When he set out it was in the middle of winter ; 
and he liad to travel several hundred miles through an almost 
pathless wilderness, infested by bands of lurking savages, 
cruel and treacherous. Still, the task was accomplished. 
" I am here," said the French commander at Erie, " by the 
orders of my general," the Marquis Du Quesne {heme), the 
governor of Canada ; and to Du Quesne the English were re- 
ferred for satisfaction. 

9. On his return, Washington found the Alleghany full 
of drifting ice. " He encamped on its border, and at day- 
break was up to devise some means of reaching the opposite 

bank. No other mode presented itself than by a 
raft, and to construct this, they (he and one com- 
panion named Gist) had but one poor hatchet. With this 
they set resolutely at work, and labored all day, but the sun 
went down before their raft was finished. They launched it, 
however, and getting on board, endeavored to propel it across 
with poles. Before tliey were half way over, the raft became 
jammed between cakes of ice, and they were in imminent 
peril. 

10. Washington j^lanted his pole on the bottom of the 
stream, and leaned against it with all his might to stay the 
raft until the ice should pass by. The rapid current forced 
the ice against the pole with such violence that he was jerked 
into the water, where it was at least ten feet deep. He only 
saved himself from being swept away and drowned, by catch- 
ing hold of one of the raft logs. It was now impossible, with 
all their exertions, to get to either shore. Abaiuloning the 
raft, therefore, they got upon an island, near which they 
were drifting. Here they passed the night, exposed to in- 
tense cold, by which the hands and feet of Mr. Gist were 
frozen. In the morning they found the drift ice wedged so 
closely together, that they succeeded in getting to the opposite 
side of the river ; and before night they were in comfortable 
quarters." After an absence of eleven weeks, Washington 
delivered the Erench commander's reply to Dinwiddle, 



1755 Expulsion of the Acadians. 105 

11. Active operations were at once resolved upon. A fort, 
at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, was 
begun ; and, Washington at the head of a small body of men, 
was sent to finish and protect it. Before, how- Washington's 
ever, he could reach the place the French ap- expedition, 
peared, took possession of the works, completed them, and 
named the fort Duquesne. Hearing of this event and that a 
force was marching to intercept him, Washington fell back to 
the " Great Meadows." Here he attacked and defeated the 
invaders (May, 1754) ; but another force of fifteen hundred 
French and Indians coming against him, he, in turn, was 
defeated and compelled to return to Virginia (July 4, 1754). 

12. Several expeditions against the French were planned 
for the next year. " At the peace of 1748, Acadia had been 
ceded to England ; but the French still claimed a large por- 
tion of it, and built forts for its defense. In 1755 _ , . 

' Expulsion 

these forts were taken and the whole of Acadia of the 
was conquered by three thousand men from Mas- ^^ ^*°^" 
sachusetts, under the command of General Winslow. The 
inhabitants, a peaceful race taking no delight in warfare, 
were accused of supplying the French with provisions, and of 
doing other things that violated their neutrality. These 
accusations were probably true, for the Acadians were 
descended from the French, and had the same friendly feel- 
ings towards them that the people of Massachusetts had for 
the English ; but their punishment was severe. 

13. The English determined to tear these poor people, 
more than seven thousand persons in all, from their native 
homes, and scatter them, abroad. A considerable part of 
them were made prisoners, and transported to the English 
colonies. All their dwellings and churches were burned, 
their cattle were killed, and the whole country was laid waste, 
so that none of them might find shelter or food in their old 
homes, after the departure of the English. One thousand of 
the Acadians were sent to Massachusetts. 

14:, A sad day it was for them when the armed soldiers 



106 



The Frencli and Indian War. 



1755 



drove them from tlieir homes, at the point of the hayonet, 
down to the sea shore. Very sad were they, likewise, while 
tossing npon the ocean in the crowded transport ships. But 
it must have been sadder still when they were landed on the 
Long Wharf, in Boston, and left to themselves on a foreign 
strand. Then, probal)ly, they huddled together and looked 
into one another's faces for the comfort which was not there. 
Hitherto they had been confined on board of separate vessels, 
so that they could not tell whether their relatives and friends 
were prisoners along with them. 

15. Now a desolate wife might ])0 heard calling, for her 
husband. He, alas, had gone, she knew not whither ; or, 
perhaps, had fled into the woods of Acadia, and had now 
returned to weep over the ashes of their dwelling. 0, how 
many broken bonds of affection were here ! Country lost — 
friends lost — their rural wealth of cottage, field, and herds all 
lost together ! Every tie between these poor exiles and the 
world seemed to be cut off at once. They must have regret- 
ted that they had not died before their exile ; for even the 
English would not have been so pitiless as to deny them 
graves in their native soil. The 
dead were happy ; for they were 
not exiles !" 

16. During the same year an 
expedition went against Fort 
Dnquesne. It was conducted by 
General Braddock, an officer of 

Brad- ^\^ :ind experience, 
dock's defeat, who had been sent 
from England with several re^'i- 
ments of soldiers, to take com- 
mand of all the forces in the colo- 
nies. Confident of success, he 
marched through the wilderness, heedless of danger from the 
savages ; and treated with contempt the suggestion of Wash- 
ington, who served as his aid, that he should scour the 




GENERAL BRADDOCK. 



1755 The War to he carried on loitTi vigor. 107 

woods so as to protect his army from a surprise by the In- 
dians. 

17. Thus he rashly pushed on till about ten miles from the 
fort, when the soldiers' ears were suddenly assailed by the sav- 
age war-whoop, and a deadly fire was poured into their ranks 
from an unseen enemy. Panic and disorder ensued. The 
soldiers were shot down like deer, and the general was mor- 
tally wounded. Washington, throughout this disastrous day, 
distinguished himself by his courage and presence of mind. 
His escajDC from injury was wonderful, for he had two horses 
shot under him, and four bullets passed through his coat 
(July 9, 17o5).i 

18. So little had been accomplished up to this time against 

the French, that the English peoj)le demanded a change in 

the administration of their government, and the celebrated 

William Pitt was placed at the head of affairs. 

The 
Preparations were immediately made for carrying war to be 

on the war with vigor, and fifty thousand men carried on 
^ ' . -^ . with vigor, 

were enlisted for the service. The French, at this 

time, held forts by which their trade and jDossessions were 

protected in every direction. 

19. Fort Duquesne guarded the territory on the west ; 
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, closed 
the route to Canada ; Niagara protected the fur trade of the 
great lakes and the region beyond ; Louisburg menaced New 
England and guarded the fisheries ; and Quebec, with its 
strong fortifications, was the key to the possessions of Can- 
ada. A vigorous effort was now to be made to capture all 
these strong posts, and thus to destroy the French power in 
America. 

* General Johnson started against Crown Point, but did not get 
further than the head of Lake George. Dieskau {(k-es-kd), the Frencli 
commander, marching against him, met and defeated a detachment under 
Williams, but was repulsed by Johnson ; who, after erecting Fort William 
Henry, retired to Albany. In 1757, INIontcalm took Fort William Henry 
after a siege of six days. His Indian allies, incited by the hope of 
plunder, massacred the garrison while they were on their retreat to Foi t 
Edward. 



108 The French and Indian War. 1759 

20. The expedition against Crown Point and Ticonderoga 
was intrusted to General Abercromby. "With an army of six- 
teen thousand men, '' the hirgest body of European origin 

that had ever been assembled in America,'" Aber- 
Succcssos 

and cromby left the head of Lake George in the early 
failures. ^.^^.^ ^^ j^^^^, (1758). The vast flotilla, consisting 
of nine hundred small boats and one hundred and thirty-five 
whale-boats, with artillery on rafts, proceeded slowly down 
the lake. Banners fluttered in tlie breeze, arms glittered in 
the sunshine, and martial music echoed along the wood-clad 
mountains. Landing at the northern end of the lake, the 
army commenced a march through the dense forests towards 
Ticonderoga, which was then comnuinded by ]\Iontcalm. Tlie 
advance, under Lord Howe, was suddenly met by the French, 
and repulsed, the young and lamented leader being killed. 

21. " With Lord Howe expired the master-spirit of the en- 
terprise." The troops fell back to tiie landing place ; but 
resuming tlieir march, advanced against the fort and made an 
ass9,ult. The attempt failed, with the loss of nearly two 
thousand men ; '' Abercromljy hurried the army back to the 
boats, and did not rest till he had placed the lake between 
himself and Montcalm." The expeditions against Louisburg 
and Durpiesne were successful. Louisburg was taken after a 
desperate resistance. Duquesne made no defense. It was 
abandoned on the approach of the English, and its naime 
changed to Fort Pitt. 

22. The great object of the campaign of 1759 was the 
reduction of Canada. Niagara was taken, and the French 
were driven from the posts on Lake Champlain. With eight 

Capture thousand men. General Wolfe ascended the St. 
of Quebec. Lawrence river to proceed against Quebec. He 
landed his army upon an island below the city ; and made a 
daring assault upon the French intrenchments ; but it result- 
ed in defeat and serious loss. " Wolfe Avas greatly dispirited 
by this rei^xlse. The emotions of liis mind, co-operating with 
great fatigue of body, brought on a fever, which nearly proved 



1759 



Capture of Quebec. 



109 



fatal ; and it was almost a month before he was able to 
resume his command in person. 

23. While stretched upon his bed in his tent, he arranged 
a plan for scaling the almost in- 
accessible Heights of Abraham, 
and gaining possession of that 
elevated plateau in the rear of 
Quebec. The camp was now 
broken up, and all the troops and 
artillery, except a garrison left 
on the island, were taken by a 
part of the fleet far up the river, 
while the remainder lingered and 
made feigned preparations for a 
second attack upon Montcalm's 
intrenchments. It was the 12th 
of September, and the brief Canadian summer was over. 
After midnight the army left the vessels ; and in flat-boats, 
without oars or sails, they glided down noiselessly with the 
tide, followed by the ships soon afterward. 

24:. At his evening mess on the ship, AVolfe composed and 
sang impromptu that little song of the camp, commencing — 

' Why. soldiers, why, 

Should we be melancholy, boys ? 
Why, soldiers, why — 

Whose business 'tis to die. ' 




GENERAL ■\VOLFE. 



And as he sat among his officers, and floated softly down the 
river at the past-midnight hour, a shadow seemed to come 
upon his heart, and he repeated, in low, musing tones, that 
touching stanza of Gray's ' Elegy in a Country Church- 
yard '- 

' The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power. 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. 
Await alike the inevitable hour : 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave ! ' 

At the close he whispered : ' Now, gentlemen, I would prefer 



110 The French and, hidlan War. 1759 

being the author of that i)oem to the glory of beating the 
French to-morrow. ' 

25. The flotilla reached a cove which Wolfe had marked 
for a landing place, and which still bears his name, before 
daybreak. At the head of the main division, Wolfe pushed 
eagerly up a narrow and rough ravine, while the liglit infan- 
try and Highlanders clim])ed the steep acclivity by the aid of 
the maple, spruce, and ash saplings, and shrubs, which 
covered its rugged face. The sergeant's guard on its brow 
was soon dispersed, and at dawn, on the 13th, almost five 
thousand British troops were drawn up in battle array on the 
Plains of Abraham, three hundred feet above the St. Law- 
rence. 

26. Montcalm could hardly believe the messenger who 
brought him intelligence of this marshalling of the English 
upon the weak side of the city. ' It can be but a small part}' 
come to burn a few houses, and return,' he said ; but he was 
soon undeceiv'cd. Then he saw the imminent danger to which 
tlie town and garrison were exposed, and he immediately aban- 
doned his intrenchments, and led a large portion of his army 
to attack the invaders. Wolfe placed himself on the right : 
Montcalm was on the left. So the two commanders stood 
face to face. Wolfe ordered his men to load witli two l)ullcts 
each, and to reserve their fire until the JFrench should be 
within forty yards. 

27. These orders were strictly obeyed, and the double- 
shotted guns did terrible execution. After delivering several 
rounds in rapid succession, which threw the French into 
confusion, the English charged iipon them furiously with 
their bayonets. While urging on his battalions in this 
charge, Wolfe was slightly wounded in the wrist. He 
stanched the blood with a handkerchief, and, while cheering 
on his men, received a second wound. A few minutes after- 
ward, another bullet struck him on the breast, and brought 
him to the ground mortally wounded. At that moment, 
regardless of self, he thought only of victory for his troops. 



1763 Closing Emnts of tlie War. Ill 

' Support me,' he said to an officer near him ; ' let not my 
brave soldiers see me drop. The day is ours — keep it ! ' He 
was taken to the rear while his troops continued to charge. 

28. The officer on whose shoulder he was leaning, ex- 
claimed, ' They run ! they run ! The waning light returned 
to the dim eyes of the hero, and he asked, ' Who run ? ' — ' The 
enemy, sir ; they give way everywhere.' — ' What,' feebly ex- 
claimed W^olfo, ' do they run already? Now God be praised, 
I die happy ! ' These were his last words, and, in the midst of 
sorrowing companions. Just at the moment of victory, he 
expired. Montcalm, who was fighting gallantly at the head 
of the French, also received a mortal wound. ' Death is cer- 
tain,' said his surgeon. ' I am glad of it,' replied Mont- 
calm : ' how long shall I live ? ' ' Ten or twelve hours, per- 
haps less.' ' So much the better : I shall not live to see the 
surrender of Quebec' Five days afterward the city capitu- 
lated." 

29. This victory really decided the war, though the 
French, the next year, made an attempt to recover Quebec. 
Montreal was also surrendered, and thus the whole of Canada 
became the property of the English (1760). In „, . 
1763 a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, by the events of 
terms of which, France gave up to Great Britain * ® ^^^' 
all her American possessions east of the Mississippi and north 
of the I'-bcr-ville river, in Louisiana.' This gave great 
dissatisfaction to the Indians of the northwest, for they dis- 
liked the English. Soon a coml)ination, known as the 
" Pontiac Conspiracy," was formed by the various tribes, and 
all the posts were captured, except Niagara, Fort Pitt, and 
Detroit. Hundreds of families were butchered or driven from 
their homes. Detroit was besieged six months, but the Indi- 
ans were finally compelled to sue for peace (1763). Pontiac, 
their great leader, wandered to tlie Mississippi, and there, in 



' The Iberville is an outlet of the Mississippi, fourteen miles south of 
Baton Rouge, connecting the Mississippi on the east with Lake Maurepas. 



112 Condition of the Colonies. 

a forest, an Indian who had been l)ribed with a barrel of 
liquor, stole close upon his track and buried a tomahawk in 
his brain (1769). 

Condition of the Colonies. 

1. At the close of the French and Indian War the thirteen 
colonies that afterward became the United States, contained 
a population of more than two millions of persons, one fourth 

of whom at least were negro slaves. This esti- 
mate does not include the Indians. The whites 
were descendants, in large part, of persons who had come 
from the old world to secure for themselves freedom to wor- 
ship God as they desired. In general, they were intelligent 
and industrious, and of good moral and religious culture.^ 
The number of slaves imported into the colonies direct from 
Africa up to this time, was probably not far from three hun- 
dred thousand. Slavery existed in all the colonies, though, 
Georgia at first, had laws against the holding of slaves, and 
the Quakers were always opposed to slavery. " Slavery is 
opposed to the gospel," said Oglethorpe, and yet, within seven 
years after his settlement was begun, slave-shi^js Avere dis- 
charging their cargoes at Savannah. 

2. The number of slaves in New England was small, but 
Governor Stuyvesant so encouraged their importation into his 
province, that, at one time, there were more slaves in New 
York, in proportion to the white population, than in Vir- 
ginia. Afterward the slaves in Virginia Avere tbe majority 
of her inhabitants. Philadelphia, with a population not much 
exceeding thirty thousand, was the first city in size and 
Avealth. NcAv York came next, though that city never was, 
even under English rule and up to the close of colonial times, 

' The Huguenots came in great numbers, and settled in New York, 
Massachusetts, Virfrinia, and South Carohna. Large settlements were 
also made by the Scotch-Irisli Presbyterians in New Hampshire, Western 
Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. 



Industry^ Mechanical and Agricultural. 113 

'' much more than a prosperous and drowsy Dutch village." 
Boston, Charleston, and Baltimore followed. 

3. There were three forms of government in force among 
the colonies. These were the provincial, or royal ; the pro- 
prietary ; and the charter. New Hampshire, New York, 
New Jersey, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia 

were under the first form. Each had a governor 
who had received his appointment from the king, and who 
ruled according to instructions from his royal master. Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware, and Maryland were of the second form. 
They were governed by owners or proprietors. Massachu- 
setts, Ehode Island, and Connecticut were under charter 
governments. Their charters, which had been conferred by 
the crown, gave to the people certain civil rights, which, it 
was believed, could not be taken from them. 

4. When it is recollected that England, by her " Naviga- 
tion Acts" and other oppressive laws would not allow other 
nations to trade with her colonies, and would not permit the 
colonists to manufacture any article, not even a 

nail or a pin, a wheel or a plow, we can under- mechanical 

stand how the cultivation of the soil came to be ^"'^ ^sy^" 

cultural, 
the chief pursuit of the people. The northern 

colonies were famous for wheat and corn. " The cultivation 
of tobacco in Virginia and Maryland was an epoch in the his- 
tory of man : all other products of the soil there were neg- 
lected for it." Ships from England every year ascended the 
Potomac or the James, to gather at the wharves of the large 
planters the great crops of tobacco. Every year, for a long 
time, the proceeds from the sale of tobacco exported, reached 
nearly $4,000,000. This amount was at least one third of the 
total sum received from the sale of all the productions ex- 
ported from the colonies. And what did we get in return ? 
Hinges, pins, locks, plows, and a great variety of other things 
which the English laws would not permit us to make. 

5. At a very early period seed-rice was brought into the 
Carolinas from the island of Madagascar, and soon became an 



114 



Condition of tlie Colonies. 




LINEN SPINNING-WHEEL. 



article of general cultivation and a staple export. The rice 
of Carolina was esteemed the best in the world. Indigo was 
also raised in large quantities. The 
production of silk was quite active in 
Georgia. Cotton had been grown for 
many years in the south, but the 
quantity produced was not yet equal 
to the demand for home use. The 
largest branch of manufacturing in- 
dustry in which the New England 
colonists were employed, was the mak- 
ing of lumber. The building of ships, 
for the coasting and river trade and 
for sale, was extensively carried on in Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, Maine, and New York. More than a hundred 
ships were sold every year to English merchants. 

6. All the labor throughout the south, during the latter 
part of the colonial period, whether in the shojis or the fields, 
was done by slaves. " Tobacco, 
which was the source of the wealth 
of Virginia, was altogether pro- 
duced by slaves. The progress of 
the physical sciences in Europe, 
and many admirable inventions of 
industrial art, created in the course 
of time a demand for another 
product, cotton, which experience 
proved could be more advantageous- 
ly produced in the Southern States 
than anywhere else, but produced 
in them only by slaves. Thence, very soon, the whole econ- 
omy of the south centered on slavery. At the north, it was 
different. There the slaves being few, the cobbler used his 
brain as well as his lapstone ; the blacksmith was an artisan, 
a leader in the church choir, and a chief speaker in town 
meetings. The carpenter was a craftsman ; with poor tools, 




WOOLLEN SPINNING-WHEEL. 



Printing. 



115 



fisheries. 



unaided by machinery, lie was compelled to hew out his 
dwelling-place, and he built it firmly and well. The house 
and the man were built up together, and each was strong and 
true. The housewife spun and wove the very cloth in which 
the family was clad." ^ 

7. Several of the coast towns of New England had been 
engaged for many years in the whale fishery. The business 
was for a long period a source of great profit, and it proved 
to be a school for the training of men whereby 
tliey became accomplished seamen. The cod and 
other fisheries employed very many j)epsons. " About 1670, 
the profits of the mackerel, bass, and herring fisheries at Cape 
Cod, were granted to found a free jjublic school, which was 
opened in 1671." 

8. " Our ancestors were j)lainly resolved that the new 
world should be a land of printers." Only eighteen years 

after the landing of the Pil- 
grims a printing press was 
set up at Cam- 
bridge ; and four 
years after the arrival of 
Penn, one was at work in 
^ Philadelphia. In 1701, the 
'^m publication of a newspaper 
was commenced in Boston. 
It was then the only news- 
paper printed in all Amer- 
ica, and for fifteen years it 
had no competitors. A lit- 
tle more than twenty years 
after its first publication 
William Bradford published 
Benjamin Franklin, as an apprentice, 
The newspapers 




Printing. 



franklin's BlUTIIPLAOE, BOSTON 



a paper in New York 

aided his brother to print one in Boston 



Eflward Atkinson, in " The First Century of the Republic." 



116 \ Condition of the Colonies. 

I 

soon increased in number, and, in the course of time, became 
as necessary to the people as their daily food. The first maga- 
zine was i)ub]ished by Franklin at Philadelphia in 1741. To 
Franklin, when in England twenty years later, Hume, the 
historian, wrote : " America has sent us many good things, — 
gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, indigo, and so forth, but you are 
the first philosopher, and indeed the first great man of letters, 
for whom we are beholden to her." 

9. Tlic early settlers of New England, New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, and other colonies saw that the good reputation and 
happiness of the whole country could only be promoted and 

Education maintained by the proper education of their chil- 
and schools, dren, and their children's children for all time. 
The school-house, like the church, was soon found in every 
New England town. Common schools were established by 
law. Hawthorne gives a description of a school, one famous 
in Boston for many years, in which he presents us with the 
following picture : " It is a large, dingy room, with a sanded 
floor, and is lighted by windows that turn on hinges, and 
have little diamond-shaped panes of glass. The scholars sit 
on long benches, with desks before them. At one end of the 
room is a great fireplace, so very spacious that there is room 
enough for three or four boys to stand in each of tlie chimney 
corners. This was the good old fashion of fireplaces when 
there was wood enough in the forests to keep people warm 
without their digging into the bowels of the earth for coal." 

10. New York had a school at an early day when the 
Dutch were in possession of the country, over which a school- 
master from Holland presided ; and a school was established 
in Pennsylvania the very next year after the arrival of Penn. 
The oldest college is at Cambridge. In 1636, *' the Massa- 
chusetts court agreed to give £400 towards a school or college, 
but tlie project lay in abeyance until 1638, when, by the will 
of the Rev. John Harvard, about £700 were secured, and the 
first class was formed." In 1700 ten clergymen came to- 
gether, and each one laying some books on a table, said : *' I 



Manners and Customs. Ill 

give these books for the founding of a college in this colony. 
This was afterward called Yale College, in honor of Elihu Yale, 
of England, who gave it a large sum of money. In Virginia, 
the College of William and Mary had been founded with 
great liberality by the two sovereigns whose names it bore ; 
the College of New Jersey (at Princeton) flourished ; and 
King's College, now Columbia College, established by royal 
authority in New York, and the university of Pennsylvania, 
began the useful careers in which they still continue. 

11. Domestic life, except among the wealthy planters, 
was marked by great simplicity. The houses were plainly 
furnished. In a few there were relics from the old world, 
such as richly-carved mahogany side-boards, mirrors, and 
tall Dutch or English clocks. Every house except Manners 
in the far south, had its great fireplace, which was ^^* customs, 
inclosed in wide wooden mantels. This was sufficiently spa- 
cious to receive logs of three or four feet in diameter. It had 
an oven in the back, and " a flue large enough to permit the 
ascent of a good-sized balloon." Tallow candles, in brass or 
iron candlesticks, were in common use, but, for grand occa- 
sions, sperm or wax candles were used. High, four-post bed- 
steads, and window curtains graced the best chamber, which 
was kept closed most of the time and reserved " for com- 
pany." 

12. The New England Church, or, as it was always called, 
the meeting-house, was a great square building standing in 
the middle of the " common." It had nothing of what now- 
adays we call lecture rooms or vestries. Neither had it any 
conveniences for holding evening meetings. When these 
were to be held, and they could only be held in the later colo- 
nial times when there was no longer any fear of Indian 
attack, the minister would give notice in this way : " There 
will be preaching on Wednesday night in the school-house at 
early candle light. The brethren are requested to bring their 
own candles with them." The old-fashioned two-tined fork 
was the candlestick for the occasion. It was stuck through 



118 Condition of the Colonics. 

the lower end of the candle and then into a block of Avood 
nailed against the wall. 

13. There were no carpets, except such as were made of 
rags and had been woven by the famih'. Tlie many floors 
were sprinkled with sand. This was particularly tlie custom 
among the Dutch, who, also, ornamented their front doors — 
usually in two parts, upper and lower — with large brass 
knockerSj which had to be burnished every day. Pewter 
plates were in ordinary use, and also plain crockery instead 
of china. Ladies, belonging to the wealthy classes, had each 
her silk gown, but they did not wear them every day, or change 
them with every puff of fashion. Home-made woolen gar- 
ments were the common wear of men ; calico and blue check 
of women. In New Hampshire " it was ordered that the 
sleeves of the women should reach down to their Avrists, and 
their gowns be closed round their necks. Men were obliged 
to cut short their hair, that they might not resemble women." 

14. In New York many of the customs Avere such as had 
been introduced by its Dutch founders. Some of them still 
remain ; such as the " May-day moving," the visit of Santa 
Claus ''the night before Cliristmas," the coloring of "Easter 
eggs," and the general visiting on New Year's day. In the 
houses of the wealthy planters of the south the " jieople sat 
on carved chairs at quaint tables, a'inid piles of ancestral silver 
ware, and drank punch out of costly bowls from Ja])an." In 
that early period, long before railroads Avere even thought of, 
the facilities for traveling Avere small indeed. Stage coaches 
were fcAV, and horseback riding was common. In the towns 
of Maryland and Virginia the ladies made visits in sedan- 
chairs l)Oj-ne by lackeys in livery. A coach ran in two days 
from NcAv York to Philadelphia. From Boston to Ncav York 
Avas a week's journey. 

15. The Indians had a kind of money called wampum, 
Avhich was made of clam shells. Gold and silver Avere of no 
value to them. For the furs and skins which they brought 
to the whites, they would only receive their pay in strings of 



Money. 



119 



Money. 



wampum^, or in powder, sliot, muskets, or rum. Strange to 
say, the whites adopted this kind of money, not 
only in transactions between themselves and the 
Indians, but it was taken in payment of debts due by one set- 
tler to another. But wampum, in the course of time, became 
so abundant that custom and law abolished it. The g-old and 
silver money of England, Spain and Portugal, then came into 
general use ; " but these coins being scarce, the people were 
often forced to barter their commodities instead of selling 
them. >If a man wanted to" buy a coat, he perhaps exchanged 
a bear skin for it. If he wished for a barrel of molasses, he 
might purchase it with a pile of pine, boards. Musket balls 
were used instead of farthings. There was not money enough 
in any part of the country to pay the salaries of the ministers, 
so that they sometimes had to take quintals of fish, bushels of 
corn, or cords of wood, instead of silver or gold." 

16. As the people grew more numerous, and their trade 
one with another increased, the want of current money was 
strll more sensibly felt. To supply the demand in Massachu- 
setts, a mint was established in Boston (1G52), which coined 
"pine-tree shillings" for more than thirty years. "The 
battered silver cans 
and tankards, silver 
buckles and broken 
spoons, silver buttons 
of worn-out coats, 
and silver hilts of 
swords that had fig- 
ured at court, — all 
such curious old arti- 
cles were douljtless thrown into the melting-pot together. 
But by far the greater part of the silver consisted of bullion 
from the mines of South America, Avhich the English bucca- 
neers had taken from the Spaniards. Each coin had the 
date (1652) on the one side and the figure of a pine tree on the 
other. Hence they were called pine-tree shillings." 




PINE-TREE SHILLING. 



SUMMARY BY COLONIES. 



1492 — 1703. 



1492. 



1607. 



1609. 



1620. 



America liavinpf been discovered and exten- 
sively explored, actual possession was taken of 
the new regions by the j)lantin{j of settlements 
in them. The first attempts at settlement on the 
part of the French and Engli^ih were not success- 
ful. On the part of the Spaniards, St. Aujrustine, 
Florida, was settled in 1.^6."), and is therefore the 
oldest settlement in the United Stales. 

Virginia. — The next permanent settlement 
(this was made by the English) was at James- 
town. The growth of Virginia was at first slow, 
owing to the unfitness of the settlers for ])ioneer 
life. Domestic strife, the " Starving Time," 
hostility of the Indians, and Bacon's Rebellion 
were causes against the ])r()gress of the colony ; 
the marriage of Pocahontas, importation of wives, 
and the cultivation of tobacco contributed to its 
prosperity. African shivery began in 1C19. 
" English king and English church were alike 
faithfully honored here. The gentry of Virginia 
dwelt on their great plantations after a fashion 
almost patriarchal." 

New Vorkdiul JVeio Jersey. — The discovery of 
the Hudson river for the Dutch and their ex- 
plorations gav(! them a title to the country, which 
they took advantage 'of by making settlements at 
various places. Liberal inducements were offered 
to setth^rs, vvlio, coming mostly from England, pre- 
ferred English rule ; and the Dutch governor was 
comi)elled to submit (1064). New Netherlands, 
wliile in tlu^ i)()Ssession of the Dutch, made good 
progress in ])opulatiou and wealth. A large fur 
trade was carried on with the Indians. The 
early history of New Jersey is connected with 
that of New York, both colonies having been 
under the same ownership or governor much of 
the time. In both were large numbers of slaves. 
The Jerseys were never disturbed by Indian wars. 
The government of both colonies was of the class 
called provincial or royal. 

New Kiigldad. — Keligious motives influenced 
the first settlers of all the New England colonies. 
The Pilgrims left England to escape persecution, 
and, after a brief stay in Holland, established 
themselves at Plymouth. The other New Eng- 



Sovereigns 
of England. 



Elizabeth. 

1.5o^l60a. 



James I. 

1603-1625. 



James I. 



Summary by Colonies. 



121 



land colonies, except Rhode Island, were settled 
by Puritans. Church and civil matters were 
united, and church members only, in two of the 
colonies, were permitted to vote and hold office. 
The first settlers of Rhode Island, under the lead- 
ership of Roger Williams, admitted all persons 
of whatever religion to participate in the civil 
affairs of the colony. The habits of the early 
New Englanders were simple but strict. " The 
church and the school-house were built side by 
side." Fishing, fur-trading, and agriculture were 
the pursuits. The Pequod War, Persecution of 
the Quai^ers, King Philip's War, and the Witch- 
craft Delusion were causes that operated against 
the progress of the colonies ; but the principles, 
energy, and character of the people, with their in- 
struments of church, school, and college, over- 
came all adverse circumstances. At the close of 
this period. New Hampshire was under provincial 
or royal government ; the other colonies of New 
England were under the charter rule. 

Mnvylnnd. — The first settlement was made at 
St. Mary's. The settlers, like those of New Eng- 
land, were influenced by religious motives ; but 
while they welcomed comers from every Chris- 
tian denomination, it was understood that the 
colony was established for the particular benefit 
of Catholics, who could here enjoy that freedom 
which the Puritans had in New England. The 
settlers were intelligent and enterprising. Their 
principal occupation was the cultivation of to- 
bacco. Clayborne's Rebellion and the Civil Wars 
were impediments in the progress of the colony. 
The form of government was projirietary. 

North and South Carolina. — The first settle- 
ment in North Carolina was made on the Chowan 
river (1650), that of South Caiolina on the Ashley 
(1670). The settlers were from Virginia, Eng- 
land, or from English possessions : they were in- 
fluenced by the hope of bettering their worldly 
condition. The cultivation of rice was carried on 
extensively ; and indigo, tar, and turpentine were 
exported. The "Grand Model," from which 
great expectations had been formed, was a 
hindrance to the growth of North and South 
Carolina. The colony was divided in 1729. The 
form of government of both colonies was pro- 
vincial or royal. 

Pennsylvania and Delaware. — Both Delaware 
and Pennsylvania were settled by Swedes, the 
former more than forty years before Penn re- 
ceived his charter (10;}8). The subjugation of the 
Swedes liy the Dutch placed the settlers under 
the rule of New Netherlands (1055), but the sur- 



Cliarles I. 

1625-1649. 



Charles I. 



Charles II. 

lGCO-1685. 



Charles I. 



122 



Summary hy Colonies. 



render of New Netherlands to the English gave 
that power undisturbed possession of the whole 
region (1064). Tlie charter obtained by Peiin, 
witli his grant of Delaware from the Duke of 
York, put both Pennsylvania and Delaware under 
proprietary rule. Like the New England colonies 
and Maryland, a leading motive for the settle- 
ment of Pennsylvania was religious. Penn wel- 
comed all good men to his colony, but he ex- 
tended a special invitation to Qiiakers, who were 
subjected to persecution in England. As the In- 
dians were dealt with justly and kindly, no 
Indian war ever disturljed the colony of Pennsyl- 
vania or Delaware. Both colonies, especially the 
former, made rapid growth in population. 

Georgia. —The first settlement was at Savannah. 
The colony was established for the poor — that 
is, for those persons in England who could not 
pay their debts, and who, in consequence, were 
condemned Ijy law to spend their lives in prison. 
Other distressed iiersons found a shelter in 
Georgia, but for a long time the colony did not 
prosper. How could it with such settlers? The 
hostility of the Spanish neighbors of Florida was 
another cause that operated against its prosperity, 
until, finally, the colony was returned to the 
crown, and thenceforth was under provincial or 
royal government. 

European Wars. — The three wars of European 
origin — King William's, Queen Anne's, and King 
Ueorge's — afflicted the northern colonies most. 
Their only important result in America was the 
transfer of Acadia to England's possession. 

French and Jndiaii, War. — This was a contest 
between t]nu:land and France for dominion in 
America. Both powers claimed the territory west 
of the Alle<rhany mountains. The English were 
aided by their colonists and the Iroipiois, the 
French by their colonists and the Indians of 
Canada. The French, in the first years of the 
war, drove the English from the western part of 
Pennsylvania and the northern part ot New York ; 
but the English expelled the Acadians from Nova 
Scotia, reovered their lost territory of Pennsyl 
vania and New York, and finally gained a great 
victory i)efore Quebec. JirK/ilt : Canada and all 
the region to the Mississippi, exce))t a very small 
portion at the mouth of tlnit river, became British 
territory ; the debt of Great Britain was greatly 
increased ; and the colonists had taken inij)ortant 
lessons in the art of war, which, in a short time, j 
were to be turned to account in eiuibliiig them to 
resist oppression and gain their independence. ' 



Charles II. 



George II. 

1T27-170O. 



William III. 

ii;si)-i7u2. 

Anne. 

1T02-1714. 

George II. 






(reorge III. 

1760-1820. 



Toxical Memew. 123 



1634. 



1682. 



1732. 



GENERAL SUMMARY. 



1607. When Newport sailed up tlie James river, all America from 
Nova Scotia to Florida, was still in possession of the Indians. 
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in 
America. Two years later the Dutch, under the leadership of an 

1609. English navigator, entered the Hudson river ; but before Hol- 
1 land had eflfected any settlement in the new region, the Vir- 
ginians had gone through the experience of a " starving time," 
and had married one of their number to Pocahontas ; and so 
rapid was the march of events that before the Dutch began in 
earnest to colonize New Netherlands (1623) the African slave 
made his appearance at Jamestown (1019). The slave preceded 

1620. the Pilgrim. When, then, the Mayflower's " little crew de- 
scended upon the solitary rock on that level shore of Plymouth," 
slavery was already planted in America. The " Pilgrim 
Fathers" took early measures to secure themselves from Indian 
molestation by making a treaty with Massasoit. New Hamp- 
shire (1633) and Connecticut (1633) were settled ; but, two years 
before Roger Williams " wandered over wooded bill and valley 
to unfurl the banner of religious toleration (1636)," Lord Balti- 
more's colonists had established themselves at an Indian village 
in Maryland. The Pequod war, in Connecticut, was ended before 
the Swedes made their appearance in the Delaware. The forma- 
tion of the New England Union was efEected (1643) before North 
Carolina was settled (1650), or before the Dutch subdued the 
Swedes in Delaware (1655), or even before the Puritans perse- 
cuted the Quakers (1656). The transfer of New Netherlands to 
the English (1664) in the same year led to the colonization of 
New Jersey (1664). King Philip's war, in New England (1675), 
overlapped Bacon's Rebellion, in Virginia (1676) ; and when 
William Peiin commenced what he called the " holy experiment," 
and founded the "City of Brotherly Love," Charleston, in South 
Carolina, was just two years old. During King William's war, 
Andres's career, as governor of New England, was brought to a 
close (1689), and the " witchcraft delusion" prevailed (1692). The 
year in which Oglethorpe and other benefactors were sent across 
the ocean to provide in America an asylum for the " poor, dis- 
tressed, or persecuted " was the year of Washington's birth (1732). 
Georgia was the last settled of the thirteen colonies (1733). 



124 



Topical Review. 



TOPICS FOR REVIEW. 

{See the hints and directions, j) 49.) 

Biographical. 
(See Willard's Life of Smith in Sparks's 

"American Biography.") ... 53-59 

(See WiUard's Life of Smith.) - - . 55-57 
(See Knowles's Memoirs of Williams, also 

Elton's Life of Williams.) - - - 72,73 
(See Church's History of King Philip's War.) 76-78 
(See Cleveland's Life of Hudson in Sparks's 
" American Biography." Ilud.^on made his 
fourth voyage in 1010. While in Hudson's 
hay, a nmtiny occurring, he, with eight 
faitiiful men, were put into an open boat 

and abandoned. 47, 80-82 

(See Brodhead's History of New York, also 
Irving's "Knickerbocker's History of New 

York." 84,85 

(See Janney's Life of Penn, also Dixon's.) - 80-96 
(See Irving's Life of Washington, or Mar- 
shall's, or Sparks's. Let the account extend 
only to tbe close of the colonial period.) - 103-123 

Geographical. 



John Smith. 

Pocahontas. 
Roger Williams. 

King Philip. 
Henry Hudson. 



Peter Stuyvesant. 



William Penn. 
Washington. 



Jamestown 53-59 

Cape Cod 60, 64 

Kennebec R 60 

Plymouth 66 

Charlestown (now of Boston). . 08 

Boston 08 

Connecticut R 69 

Saybrook 69 

Hartford 69 

New Haven 70 

Providence 73 

Salem 68,74 

New York City 80-85 

Albany 82-85 

Delaware R 82, 94 

Long Island 86, 87 

Elizabethtown (Elizabeth) 87 

Potomac R 88 



Wilmingtcm 93 

Pliiladelphia 92 

Port Royal, S. C 97 

Chowan R 98 

Charleston 98, 99 

Savannah 99 

Louisburg 101, 107, 108 

Ohio R..^ 10;]-1U 

Alleghany R 103, 104 

Fort Du(piesne (now Pitts- 
burg) 105-111 

Crown Point 107, 108 

Fort Ticonderoga 107, 108 

Lake Chami)lain 41,107, 108 

Fort Niagara 107 

Lake George 108 

Quebec 41, 107-111 

Montreal Ill 



Historical. 



Virginia 52-59 

New York 80-85 

Massachusetts 04-79 

New Hampshire 07 

Connecticut 69-77 

Marvland 87-91 

Rhode Island 72, 73, 76 

Delaware 92-90 

North Carolina 40, 96-99 

New Jersey 82-87 



South Carolina 96-99 

Pennsvlvania 91-96 

Georgia 99-101 

European Wars 101 

French and Indian War. . . 105-111 

Bacon's Rebellion 59 

Pequod War 70 

King Pliili])'s War 76-78 

Salem Witchcraft 74,75 

Expulsion of the Acadians. . . 105 



Causes of the War. 125 



SECTION III 



THE KEVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 

1. For many years England had governed her American 
colonies in a harsh, unjust, and selfish spirit. The colonies 
were ruled, not for their good, but for the benefit of English 
commerce and English work shops. They were „ 
forbidden to send their tobacco, rice, lumber, fish, of 

or any of their other products, to any country ewar. 
except England. No foreign ships were permitted to enter 
their ports. Do we wonder, then, that the colonists were 
dissatisfied ? And can we wonder that when fresh burdens 
were put upon them, they rebelled ? 

2. The French and Indian war had cost a vast sum of money. 
In order to carry it on. Great Britain had been obliged to 
borrow three hundred millions of dollars, thus increasing her 
national debt by that amount. The English government, 
therefore, asserting that the war had been waged in behalf of 
the colonies, further asserted that they ought to bear a ]3art 
of the burden. The right to tax the colonies was boldly 
proclaimed l)y Parliament ; but the colonists did not agree to 
this. They claimed that during the war they had performed 
their full, share in defending their territory, that their pre- 
servation as English colonies was quite as much for the ben- 
efit of England as themselves, and that they could not in jus- 
tice be taxed by a legislature in which they were not repre- 
sented. " Taxation and rej)resentation," they maintained, 
should go together ! " This claim of the right of taxation 
on the one side, and the denial of it on tlie other, was the 
very hinge on which the revolution turned." 

3. The remonstrance was all to no effect. A law was pass- 
ed called the Stamp Act (17G5). This required that all busi- 



126 



The War of the ReoolutioR. 



1765 



ness papers, such as deeds, bonds, and notes, and all such 
Xhe printed matter as newspapers and almanacs, should 
Stamp Act. have stamps put upon them. The law, however, 
could not disguise the intent : it was " taxation by means of 
a stamp duty." Benjamin Franklin, who was then in Eng- 
land, said that " America would 
never submit to tlic Stamp Act ;" 
and America never did. Indigna- 
tion meetings were held, and pro- 
tests were uttered. In the legisla- 
ture of Virginia, Patrick Henry, " a 
young, man highly distinguished 
for his moral courage," spoke 
with startling eloquence against 
the injustice of the measure, ex- 
claiming, " Caesar had his Brutus ; 
Charles the First, his Cromwell ; 
and (icorge the Third—" " Trea- 
son ! Treason !" was shouted from 
every part of tlie house. The ora- 
concluded the sentence : " — may 
If this be treason, make the most 




PATRICK HENRY. 



tor, after a pause, thus 
profit by their example, 
of it." 

4. James Otis, a brilliant, bold, and dciiant orator, " the 
creator of the theory of independence," in the Massachusetts 
Assembly, also eloquently denounced the act, and, on his 
motion, adopted by the Assembly, a congress of delegates 
from nine of the colonies met in the city of New York " to 
consult for the general safety. " The Declaration of Eights 
and the petitions addressed to the king and Parliament, the 
work of this congress, were as nothing to the fact that a be- 
ginning had been made in effecting a union by which the 
colonies became, as the delegates expressed it, "a bundle of 
sticks which could neither be bent nor broken," While the 
congress was in session a ship with stamps arrived at New 
York, and " at once all the vessels in the harbor lowered 



1767 The Boston Massacre. 127 

their colors. The whole city rose up as one man in opposi- 
tion to the Stamp Act (Oct. 1765)." 

5. " The first Monday of November," the day on which 
the obnoxious measure Avas to go into effect, " broke upon a 
people unanimously resolved on nullifying the Stamp Act. 
From New Hampshire to the far south, the day was intro- 
duced by the tolling of muffled bells ; minute-guns were 
fired, and penants hoisted at half-staff." Not a stamp was 
to be seen, for everywhere it was the fixed purpose that the 
act should not go into effect. As business, therefore, con- 
tinued to be conducted in the old method, that is without 
stamps, for all of them had been concealed or destroyed ; and 
as the merchants of all the cities agreed to import no goods 
while the Stamp Act remained a law, Parliament yielded. 
The Stamp Act was repealed, but the right to tax America 
was again asserted and proclaimed (176G). The stamps, 
what became of them ? They were returned to England 
" where the curious traveler may still see bags of them, 
cumbering the office from which they were issued." 

6. The repeal of the Stamp Act caused great rejoicing 
throughout the colonies, Virginia and New York voted 
statues to the king. New York also voted a statue to Pitt, 
who, in Parliament had declared " that the king- 
dom had no right to levy a tax on the colonies." Boston 

A second statue was voted to Pitt by Maryland, "^^^sacre. 
But the joy was short-lived ; for soon another law was passed 
by Parliament imposing a tax on all glass, painters' colors, 
and tea, imported into the colonies (1767). Again the 
spirit of opposition was aroused not unlike that which had 
been caused by the Stamp Act. The colonists determined to 
import no more of these articles. Franklin, still in Eng- 
land, advised his countrymen ' ' to light the torches of indus- 
try and economy." As the people of Boston showed the 
most decided opposition to the tax, a body of the king's sol- 
diers were sent to keep them in subjection. The presence of 
these " redcoats," or " lobstcrbacks," as they were called by 



128 The War of the Resolution. 1770 

the boys in tlio streets, caused constant nffrays, in one of 
which, known as the " Boston Massacre," the soldiers fired 
on the people. " A gush of smoke oversi)read the scene. It 
rose heavily, as if it were loath (o reveal the dreadful spectacle 
beneath it. Eleven of the sons of New England lay stretched 
upon the street. Some, sorely wounded, were struggling to 
rise again. Others stirred not nor groaned ; for they were 
past all pain. Blood was streaming upon the snow ; and 
though that purple stain melted away in the next day's 
sun, it was never forgotten nor forgiven by the people 
(1770).'" 

7. Before the news of this event reached England, Parlia- 
ment revoked the duty which had been im2)osed on glass and 
painters' colors, but retained that of three pence a pound on 

tea. This concession, however, did not satisfy the 
Boston people, for they were contending, not against the 
ea party, amount oi the tax but for the principle of "no 
taxation without representation." They were determined 
not to be taxed except by their own representatives. Ac- 
cordingly, the tea lirought to New York and Pliiladelphia 
was sent back. That which came lo Charleston was stored 
in damp cellars, and as no one would buy or use it, it soon 
became worthless. 

8. " Samuel x\dams was the true king in Boston at that 
time, though honors, emoluments, and even power he never 



' Two years later an affair occurred in Narragansett bay. -which, says 
Arnold, Rhode Island's historian. " is deserving- ol" connncndation as it 
■was the first blow, in all the colonies, for freedom." Tiie Gaspee, a 
British schooner, was stationed in the bay " to prevent the clandestine 
landinsz: of .ijoods subject to the payment of duty. " The packet Hannah, 
from New York, while proceedinii' up the bay was chased by the Gaspee, 
but the latter ran airround, and the Hannah thus escaped to Providence. 
The situation of the hated enemy was soon proclaimed at Providence by 
beat of drum, callinu- upon tiiosc wiio desired to ,<;■<) and destroy her, to 
meet that eveninir. Kinlit iont^-l)oats were provided, and the party em- 
barked. It was ])ast midniuht wlien they approaciied the (Gaspee. The 
attacking party boarded the schooner, and, after a l)rief struggle, the 
crew surrendered and were put on shore, their vessel being set fire to 
and conii)letely destroyed. 



1773 The Boston Tea Party. 129 

sought. He was a man of cultivated mind and stainless rep- 
utation, a powerful speaker and writer, a man in whose saga- 
city and moderation all men trusted. He was among the 
first to see tliat there was no resting-place in this great strug- 
gle short of independence. The men of Boston felt the 
power of his resolute spirit, and manfully followed where 
Samuel Adams led. With his tongue and pen he made the 
king of England tremble on his throne." " The king," he 
said, " lias no right to send troops here to invade the coun- 
try ; if tliey come, they will come as foreign enemies. AVe 
will not submit to any tax, nor become slaves. We will take 
up arms, and spend our last drop of blood before the king and 
Parliament shall impose upon us. It Avas not reverence for 
kings that brought the ancestors of New England to Amer- 
ica. They fled from kings and looked up to the King of 
kings. We are free, and want no king." 

9. Three " tea-ships" arrived at Boston, and the agents re- 
fused to send them back to London. Public meetings were 
held. Faneuil {fan'-you'l)^tx\\ ' could not contain the peo- 
ple that poured into the town, so they adjourned to the 
" Old South Meeting House." Samuel Adams, John Han- 
cock, Joseph Warren, and other notable j)atriots conducted 
the proceedings. The time for action at length arrived and 
Adams gave the word. " On the instant, a cry was heard at 
the porch ; the war-whoop resounded ; a body of men, forty 
or fifty in number, disguised with painted faces and clad in 
blankets as Indians, each holding a hatchet, passed by the 
door." The crowd followed. The ships were boarded. 
Silently and quickly " these grim figures, the painted war- 



' Faneuil Hall, in Boston, was used by the patriots during the revolu- 
tion, and for that reason is often called the ' ' Cradle of American Liberty. ' ' 
The original building, comprising a market-place on the ground floor, a 
town-hall, and other rooms, was erected by Peter Faneuil. In 1761, it 
was destroyed by tire ; but in 1763 it was rebuilt at the expense of the 
town ; and when the British occupied Boston in 1775, they used the 
Hall for a theatre. lu 1805, the building underwent considerable altera- 
tion. 



130 



Tlie War of the, RetioVution. 



1774 



riors, hoisted the tea chests on the decks of the vessels, broke 
them opeii;, and threw all their contents" into the water 
(1773).' 

10. It began to be suggested that a nnion of the colonies 
would be the best barrier against the wrongful measures of 




FANEUIL HALL, IN 1776. 



Parliament. Accordingly, committees of correspondence 

were speedily formed in New England and Virginia, and 

The fir t communication by letters was opened with the 

Continental leading patriots in every colony. The first result 

Congress. ^^,.^g ^^^^ ^aow. Delegates from all the colonies, 

except Georgia, met in Philadelphia (177-4). The low-roofed 

quaint old room in which tlie meeting was held, is, to this 

day, one of the shrines which Americans delight to visit. 



' " When tidinsrs of this bold deed Avere carried to Eni^land, King 
George was greatly enraged. Parliament immediately passed an act 
known as tlie"" Boston Port Bill," by which all vessels' were forl)idden 
to take in or discharge their cargoes at the port of Boston. In this way 
they expected to ruin all the merchants, and starve the poor people by 
depriving them of eniploymeut. " . Thus was Boston punished. 



1775 The Struggle Begins. 131 

Washington was there, and so too were Patrick Henry, Eich- 
ard Henry Lee, Samuel and John Adams, John Jay, and 
other good men and true. It was resolved that all commerce 
with England should be stopped, addresses were voted to the 
king and the people of Great Britain, and an appeal for sup- 
l^ort was made by the delegates to their brother colonists of 
Canada. " Whenever my country calls upon me," said Wash- 
ington, " I am ready to take my musket on my shoulder." 

11. Previous to this, General Gage had been appointed to 
the command of the king's troops in the colonies, and had 
also been made governor of Massachusetts. The people, 
though greatly excited, acted with prudence and preparations 
caution. They did not desire a conflict with the for war. 

" mother country," but were prepared for it, should it prove 
unavoidable. The militia were organized ; and, in Massa- 
chusetts, men cajjable of bearing arms were put under daily 
training. " The Americans called them Minute Men, be- 
cause they engaged to be ready to fight at a minute's warning. 
The English officers laughed, and said that the name was a 
very proper one, because the ' Minute Men' would run away 
the minute they saw the enemy. Whether they would fight 
or run was soon to be joroved." 

THE WAR FOR IISTDEPEXDEXCE. 

12. England shoAved no disposition to relent. The king, 

not only returned no reply to the address of the American 

Congress, but Parliament would not even allow the address 

to be read in either of its houses. In America. 

The 
events were approaching a crisis. Late one Ajoril struggle 

night eight hundred of the king's soldiers, com- ^^&^°s. 
manded by Colonel Smith, left Boston to destroy some am- 
munition and 23rovisions which the patriots had collected at 
Concord, a small town about sixteen miles distant (1775). 

13; " Gage thought that the movement was a profound 
secret, but Lord Percy, who had heard the people say on the 



132 The War of the Revolution. 1775 

Common that the troops would miss their aim, undeceived 
p , him. Gage instantly ordered that no one should 
Revere's leave the town. But Dr. Warren was before liim. 
^^ ^' and as the troops crossed the river, Ebenezer Dorr, 
Avitli a message to John Hancock and Samuel Adams, was 
riding over the Neck to Roxbury, and Paul Revere was row- 
ing over the river farther down, to Charlestown, having 
agreed with his friend, Robert Newman, to show lanterns 
from the belfrey of the Old North Church — 

' One, if by land, and two, if by sea ' — 

as a signal of the march of the British. Already the moon 
was rising, and while the troops were stealthily landing at 
Lechmere Point, their secret was flashed out into the April 
night, and Paul Revere, springing into the saddle upon the 
Charlestown shore, S23urred away into Middlesex. 

' How far that little candle throws his beams. ' 

The modest spire yet stands, reverend relic of the old town of 
Boston, of those brave men and their deeds. 

14. It was a brilliant April night. The winter had been 
unusually mild, and the spring very forward. The hills 
were already green. The early grain waved in the fields, and 
the air was sweet with blossoming orchards. Already the 
robins whistled, the bluebird sang, and the benediction of 
peace rested upon the landscape. Under the cloudless moon 
the soldiers silently marched ; and Paul Revere swiftly rode, 
galloping through Medford and West Cambridge, rousing 
every house as he went, spurring for Lexington and Hancock 
and Adams, and evading the British patrols who had l)ecn 
sent out to stop the news. Stop the news ! Already the vil- 
lage churches were beginning to ring the alarm, as the pul- 
pits beneath them had been ringing for many a year. In the 
awakening houses, lights flashed from window to window. 
Drums beat faintly far away and on every side. Signal-guns 
flashed and echoed. The watch-dogs barked. Stop tlic 
news ! Stop the sunrise. The murmuring night trembled 



1775 Lexington and Concord. 133 

with the summons so earnestly expected, so dreaded, so de- 
sired. Such was the liistory of that night in how many 
homes ! The hearts of those men and women of Middlesex 
might break, but they could not waver. They had counted 
the cost. They knew what and whom they served ; and as 
the midniglit summons came, they started up and answered, 
• Here am I.' " 

15, The British troops meanwhile moved steadily along ; 

but " the firing of guns and ringing of bells announced that 

their expedition had been heralded before them ; and Smith 

sent back for a re-enforcement. The last stars _ . . 

Lexington 

were vanishing from night when the foremost and 
party, led by Pitcairn, a major of marines, was °^''°^ " 
discovered by the husbandmen of Lexington, advancing 
quickly and in silence. Alarm guns were fired and the 
drums beat. Less than seventy, perha^js less than sixty, 
obeyed the summons, and, in sight of half as many boys and 
unarmed men, were paraded in two ranks, a few rods north 
of the meeting house. ■ The ground on which they trod was 
the altar of freedom, and they were to furnish the victims. 
Pitcairn rode in front of his men, and, when within five or 
six rods of the minute men, cried out : ' Disperse, ye vil- 
lains ! ye rebels, disperse ! lay down your arms ! why don't 
you lay down your arms and disperse ? ' The patriots stood 
motionless in the ranks, witnesses against aggression ; too 
few to resist, too brave to fly. At this, Pitcairn discharged 
a pistol, and with a loud voice cried, ' Fire ! ' The order was 
followed by a close and deadly discharge of musketry. 

16. Day came in all the beauty of an early spring. The 
trees were budding ; the grass was growing rankly a month be- 
fore its time ; the bluebird and the robin were gladdening the 
genial season and calling forth the beams of tlie sun which 
on that morning shone with the warmth of summer ; but 
distress and horror gathered over the inhabitants of the 
little town. There, on the grass, lay in death the gray- 
haired and the young ; the grassy field was red ' with the in- 



134 The War of the Rei^olution. 1775 

nocent blood of tlicir brethren slain/ crying unto God for 
vengeance from the ground. Seven of the men of Lexing- 
ton were killed, nine wounded ; a quarter part of all who 
stood in arms on the green. These are the village heroes, 
who were of more than noble blood, proving by their spirit 
that they were of a race divine. They gave their lives in tes- 
timony to the rights of mankind, bequeathing to their coun- 
try an assurance of success in the mighty struggle which they 
began." 

17. After a halt of less than thirty minutes, the British 
troojis marched on for Concord, and there destroyed all the 
stores they could find, but not without a severe skirmish in 
which several persons were killed on both sides. Meanwhile 
the militia had collected in large numbers. The British be- 
gan to retreat, but they were not permitted to escape thus. 
Every fence, barn, and shed, '' every piece of wood, every rock 
by the wayside," hid their assailants. " Scarce ten of the 
Americans were at any time seen together, yet the hills on 
each side of the road seemed to the British to swarm with 
' rebels,' as if they had dropped from the clouds. At Lex- 
ington the invaders were met by re-enforcements under Lord 
Percy ; and while their cannon kept the Americans at bay, 
Percy formed his men into a square, enclosing the fugitives, 
who lay down for rest on the ground, ' their tongues hanging 
out of their mouths like those of dogs after a chase.' Delay 
to the British was sure to prove ruinous. Aware of his peril, 
Percy, resting but half an hour, renewed the retreat. The 
Americans pressed upon the rear of the fugitives, keeping up 
a constant fire, and, until a little after sunset, wlien the sur- 
vivors escaped across Charlestown Neck, the pursuit never 
flagged. On that day, forty-nine Americans were killed, 
thirty-four wounded, and live missing. The loss of the 
British in killed, wounded, and missing, was two hundred 
and seventy three (April 19, 1775)." 

18. This contest fully aroused tlie colonics. '' With one 
impulse, they sprang to arms ; with one spirit, they pledged 



1775 Battle of Buiiker Hill. 135 

themselves to each other ' to be ready for the extreme event. ' 
With one heart, the continent cried : "' Liberty or 
Death.' " The patriots flocked in from all sides of 
and formed a camp near Boston. Putnam, of ^' 

Connecticut, left his plough in the field, turned loose the 
oxen, buckled on his sword, and rode to the camp in one 
day, a distance of sixty-eight miles. Stark, Greene, and 
others were soon there also. General Ward, of Massachu- 
setts, was exercising a limited command, for as yet no one 
had been authorized to assume supreme control. Georgia 
sent gifts of money and rice, and cheering letters. New 
York and Virginia sent encouraging Avords. North Carolina 
threw off the authority of the king. There was a general 
resort to arms, one of the immediate and important results 
being the capture of Ticonderoga by a body of Green Moun- 
tain Boys, under the heroic leadership of Ethan Allen. 

19. " A flight of stairs outside of the barracks was pointed 
out, which Allen hastily ascended, and with a voice of thun- 
der at the door, cried out to the captain to come forth in- 
stantly or the whole garrison should be sacrificed. „ ^ 

. . Capture 

At this the captain came out undressed, with his of 

breeches in his hand. ' Deliver to me the fort in- Ticonderoga. 
stantly,' said Allen. ' By what authority?' asked the cap- 
tain. ' In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continen- 
tal Congress,' answered Allen. The captain began to speak, 
but was peremptorily interrupted, and at sight of Allen's 
drawn sword near his head, be gave up the garrison. Thus 
Ticonderoga, which cost the British nation eight millions 
sterling, a succession of campaigns, and many lives, Avas won 
m ten minutes by a few undisciplined volunteers, without the 
loss of life or limb (May 10, 1775)." 

20. It coming to the knowledge of the Americans that 
Gage intended to extend his lines north and south, 

they determined to anticipate the movement by of 
occupying Bunker Hill. Accordingly, Colonel ° ^^ ^ " 
Prescott was sent at night with a thousand men to fortify 



136 



The War of the Revolution. 



1775 



BOSTON 

JlBTD 









// 1 /f /* (> It 



B'»**°Jloshiirj -^ ^ 



r;5 



' (/SjDqRCHEbTER,H,tlOH-l K 



the hill ; but, on reaching the ground, " obeying the orders as 
he understood them," he selected Breed's Hill, an eminence 
nearer Boston. The j^ickax and si^ade were plied with vigor, 

and at dawn Gage and his 
officers were astonished by 
the view of a strong re- 
doubt, thrown uji as if by 
magic. An attack was at 
once ordered (June 17). 
" The British troops, hav- 
ing crossed theriver,moved 
forward in two divisions, 
— Gronoral Howe with the 
right wing, to penetrate 
the American line at the 
rail fence and cut off a re- 
treat from the redoubt, — 
General Pigot, with the 
left wing, to storm the 
breastwork and redoubt. They moved forward slowly, for 
they were burdened with knapsacks full of provisions, ob- 
structed by the tall grass and the fences, and heated by a 
burning sun ; but they felt unbounded confidence in their 
strength, regarded their antagonists with scorn, and expected 
an easy victory. The Americans coolly waited their approach. 
Their officers ordered them to reserve their fire until the 
British were within ten or twelve rods, and then to wait till 
the word was given. ' Powder was scarce and must not be 
wasted/ they said. ' Fire low ; aim at the waistbands ; wait 
until you see the white of their eyes. ' * * * 

21. At length the British troops reached the prescribed dis- 
tance, and the order was given to fire ; when there was a dis- 
charge from the redoubt and breastwork, that did terrible ex- 
ecution on the British ranks. But it was received Avith vet- 
eran firmness, and, for a few minutes, was sharply returned. 
The Americans, being protected by their works, suffered but 



iJiu/R 




il 



1775 Battle of BunJcer Hill. 137 

little ; but their murderous balls literally strewed the ground 
with the dead and wounded of the enemy. Greneral Pigot 
was obliged to order a retreat, when the exulting shout of 
victory rose from the American lines. The patriot volunteer 
saw the veterans of England fly before his fire, and felt a new 
confidence in himself. * * * General Howe, in 
a short time, rallied his troops, and immediately ordered an- 
other assault. They marched in the same order as before, and 
continued to fire as they approached the lines. But, in ad- 
dition to the previous obstacles, they were obliged to steji over 
the bodies of their fallen countrymen. Charlestown, in the 
meantime, had been set on fire by shells thrown from Copp's 
Hill and by a party of marines. And now ensued one of the 
greatest scenes of war that can be conceived. To fill the 
eye, — a brilliantly appointed army advancing to the attack 
and storming the works, supported by co-operating ships and 
batteries ; the blaze of the burning town, coursing whole 
streets or curling up the spires of public edifices ; the air 
above filled with clouds of dense black smoke, and the sur- 
rounding hills, fields, roofs, and steeples, occupied by cro^vtls 
of spectators. To fill the ear, — the shoiTts of the contending 
armies, the crash of the falling buildings, and the roar of the 
cannon, mortars, and musketry. * * * 

22. At length, at the prescribed distance, the fire was again 
given by the patriots, which, in its fatal impartiality, pros- 
trated whole ranks of officers and men. The enemy stood 
the shock, and continued to advance with great sj)irit ; but 
the continued stream of fire from the Avhole American line 
was even more destructive than before. Generiil Howe was 
in the hottest of it. Two of his aids, and other officers near 
him, were shot down, and at times he was left almost alone. 
His officers were seen to remonstrate and to threaten, and even 
to prick and strike the men to urge them on. But it was in 
vain. The British were compelled again to give way, and 
they retreated even in greater disorder than before." 

23. The third time, with the addition of some fresh troops. 



138 



The War of the Mevolution. 



1775 



of 
the battle. 

icjins lost 



the assault was ordered ; but the Americans, having expended 
every grain of powder, were obliged to abandon their works. 
Result ►^lo'^^'ly tl^^y retreated down the hill, vanquished 
men, yet leaving little cause for triumj)!! to the 
victors. On both sides many fell ; but the Amer- 
one whom they could little spare, the noble pa- 
triot, and brave soldier, Joseph Warren. Mrs. John Adams, 

in Avriting of AVarren after the 
battle, said : " AYe want him in 
the Senate, we want him in his 
profession, we want him in tlie 
field. We mourn for the citizen, 
the senator, the physician, and 
the Avarrior." 

24. Though the British were 
successful, the victory to them 
was more disastrous and humiliat- 
ing than an ordinary defeat. 
'' Tavo more such victories," said 
the celebrated statesman at the 
head of the French cabinet, " and 
England will have no army left in America." The Ameri- 
cans were not discouraged. They felt that they could con- 
tend successfully with the king's troops, however skillful and 
well-tried these were. The contest proved to them also that 
the Putnams, Starks, Prescotts and others, who had been 
trained in the school of the " French and Indian war," had 
been apt scholars, and were the men to make good use of 
their training and experience. The sympathy for Massachu- 
setts, in her sufferings, was wide-spread ; but no where was it 
more boldly manifested tlian in Virginia. There Patrick 
Ilenry's voice, Avith its thrilling effect, Avas again heard. One 
of his speeches is thus reported : 

25. " Sir, Ave are not Aveak, if we make a i)roper use of 
those means which the God of nature hath placed in our 
poAver. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 




JOSEPH WARKEN. 



1775 Washington cliosen Commander-in-chief. 139 

liberty, and in such a country as this which we possess, 
are invincible by any force which our enemy can _,, 
send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight necessity 
our battles alone. There is a just God, who i^re- ° ewar. 
sides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up 
friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to 
the strong alone : it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. 
Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to 
desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There 
is no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are 
forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Bos- 
ton. The war is inevitable — and let it come ! I repeat it, 
sir, let it come. * * * I know not what course others 
may take ; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." 

26. On the very day of the capture of Ticonderoga, the 
Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Its most 
imjjortant duty was to appoint a commander-in-chief of the 
patriot forces, " This was a task of more delicacy 

and difficulty than might at first be supposed, chosen 
Many considerations were to be weighed besides commander- 
the personal qualifications of any individual for 
that high station, either as to character, abilities, or military 
skill. While the discussions were going on respecting mili- 
tary preparations, John Adams, one of the delegates from 
Massachusetts, moved that the army, then besieging the 
British troops in Boston, should be adopted by Congress as a 
Continental army. In the course of his observations enforc- 
ing this motion, he said it was his intention to propose for 
the office of commander-in-chief a gentleman from Virginia, 
who was at that time a member of their own body. His re- 
marks were so pointed, that all present perceived them to 
apply to Colonel Washington, who, upon hearing this refer- 
ence to himself, retired from his seat and withdrew. 

27. When the day for the apjjointment arrived, the nomi- 
nation was made by Thomas Johnson, of Maryland. The 
choice was by ballot ; and, on inspecting the votes, it was 



140 The War of the Remlution. 1775 

found that Colonel Washington was unanimously elected. 
As soon as the result was ascertained the House adjourned. 
On the convening of Congress the next morning, the i^resi- 
dent communicated to him the notice of his appointment, and 
he rose in his place and signified his acceptance in a brief 
and appropriate reply. Before the election, it had been voted 
that five hundred dollars a month should be allowed for the 
pay and expenses of the general. On this point Washington 
said : ' I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as no pecuni- 
ary consideration could have tempted me to accept this ardu- 
ous employment, at the expense of my domestic ease and hap- 
piness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep 
an exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, they 
will discharge ; and that is all I desire;' " 

28. This appointment was made two days before the battle 

of Bunker Hill. There was no such thing as communication 

by telegraph in those days, and it took a week to travel from 

„, , . Boston to Philadelphia by the quickest mode then 

Washington _. , . ^ , *^ ^. . ., 

takes known. Washington s preparations to assume the 

command, command of the army round Boston, Avere soon 
made ; and, with Generals Charles Lee and Philip Schuyler 
{ski' -lev') as his companions, he set out on horseback, but had 
scarcely proceeded twenty miles when he was met l)y a cou- 
rier with tidings of the great battle that had been fought. 
Washington eagerly asked for particulars, and when told that 
the militia stood their ground bravely, exclaimed : " The lib- 
erties of the country are safe !" Under an ancient elm at 
Cambridge, three miles from Boston, and in the presence of 
soldiers drawn up in line, and of a multitude of men, wo- 
men, and children, from all parts of the country, he took 
formal possession of the army. 

29. To prevent the British from using Canada as a base of 

operations, Congress sent an expedition under 

Expedition ^^, , ' .*= . j.-,oi ^ ^ ^ 

against Schuyler to gam possession or it. bciiuyler had 

Canada. i.e.^g]^e(i the outlet of Lake Champlain, when 

sickness comjjelling his return, General Kichard Montgom- 



1775 



Death of Montgomery . 



141 







ery, the next officer, assumed the command. Montgomery 
soon made himself master of Montreal and other places in 
Canada/ and then marched against Quebec, whore, as had 
]:)een arranged, he was joined by General 
Benedict Arnold, who had proceeded by 
the Kennebec river. 

30. For three weeks they laid siege to 
the city, and then resolved to make an as- 
sault. On the last day of the year, and 
during a fierce snow storm, Death of 
they advanced to the attack. Montgomery. 
" Push on, brave boys, Quebec is ours,' " 
cried Montgomery, as the column began 
to move up the ascent. " On they marched to within forty 
paces of the block-house. At that moment, a sailor who had 
fled from his post, surprised that the Americans did not ad- 
vance, ventured back to discover the 
reason. Through one of the port- 
holes of the block-house he saw the 
advancing party, and turned to run 
away again ; but as he turned, he 
performed an act which decided the 
fortunes of the day, and gave Canada 
back again to Britain. He touched 
off one of those grape-charged can- 
non. Forward fell the majestic form 
of Montgomery, never to rise again. 
Down went two of his aids, mortally wounded. The or- 
derly sergeant, too, never again saw daylight. Every man 
that marched in front of the column, except Captain Aaron 
Burr and the guide, was struck down to death by the dis- 
charge of that twelve-pounder. The day was just dawning. 




GENERAL MONTGOMERY. 



' St. Johns, on the Sorel river, was besieged, and then captured. 
During the siege Colonel Ethan Allen, at the head of only eighty men, 
with great rashness forced his way to Montreal, but was defeated, cap- 
tured, and sent to England in irons. 



142 Tlie War of the Resolution. 1776 

and the soldiers were soon aware of the whole extent of the 
catastrophe. The column halted and wavered. * * The 
enemy returned to the block-house, and opened fire on the as- 
sailants. The retreat soon became a preci2)itate and disor- 
derly retreat." Arnold, severely wounded, was borne from 
the field (Dec. 31, 1775.) 

31. Meanwhile, Washington had remained with his army ; 
and Boston, with its ten thousand troops sent to subdue the 
patriots, was as a besieged city. Finally, he resolved to drive 

Evacuation ^^^^ enemy away. Accordingly, he ordered forti- 
of Boston, fications to be erected on Dorchester Heights. As 
these commanded the city and the Americans could not be 
dislodged. General Howe, Gage's successor, was compelled to 
withdraw to liis ships (March 17, 1776) ; and, accompanied 
by a large number of loyal families, he sailed for Halifax. 
Washington entered the city amid the rejoicings of the pco- 
\)\e, who, for so many months, had endured every kind of 
insult and indignity from the British soldiery.' 

32. Surmising that an exj)edition under General Clinton 
which had been previously sent from Boston, was destined 
for the capture of New York, Washington sent Lee to protect 

J, . . that city. It happened that on the very day of 

against Lee's arrival there, but two hours after, Clinton 

ar es on. ^j^^ arrived, and anchored in the harbor. Thus 

foiled, Clinton sailed to the south, whence, joined by a fleet 

and troops from England, he proceeded against Cluirleston. 

33. The people of Charleston had begun to make prepara- 
tions against an attack by erecting a fort on Sullivan's island 
at the entrance of the harbor. " This was built of logs, laid 

^ " No little excitement was produced by the publication in Philadel- 
phia about this time (Jan. 10) of 'Common Sense,' a pamphlet, by 
Thomas Paine, a recent emio-rant from England, and editor of the Pnnt- 
sylvania Mar/nzine. Tliis pamphlet argued, in that jilain and convincing 
style for which Paine was so distinguislied, the folly of any longer 
attempting to keep up the British connection, and the absolute necessity 
of a final and formal separation. Pitched e.vactly to the poi)ular tone, 
it had a wide circulation througliout the colonies, and gave a powerful 
impulse to the cause of independence." — IIMrnth. 



1776 



Charleston Hailed. 



143 



one upon another in parallel rows, at a distance of sixteen 
feet, bound together at frequent intervals with Charleston 
timl)er. The spaces between were filled up with saved, 
sand. The merlons were walled entirely by palmetto logs, 
notched into one another 
at the angles. Such was 




I JIAIll ( s '(; 'sullii iif> I ^ 

I , '"If, / / y 

-' 0^ 




\- \ TTCisirroF 
CHARLESTON 



the j)lan of tlie work, 
but, with all the diligence 
of the officers, and all 
the industry of the men, 
it was still unfinished 
at the perilous moment 
when the powerful Brit- 
ish fleet appeared before 
its walls. The defense 
was confided to Colonel 
Moultrie {mnll'-lre). 

34. On the 20tli of 
June, 1776, a day ever 
memorable in the annals 
of Carolina, the enemy's ships of war, nine in number, 
commanded by Sir Peter Parker, drew u]) abreast of the 
fort, let go their anchors, and commenced a terrible bom- 
bardment. The famous battle which followed makes one 
of the brightest pages in our history. The garrison fought 
with a coolness which would have done honor to veterans. 
The day was very warm, and the men partially stripped to it. 
In the hottest of the fire, the flag of the fort was shot away. 
It fell outside the Avorks. Sergeant Jasper, one of Marion's 
men (See p. 167), instantly sprung after it upon the beach, 
and binding it to a sponge-staff, restored it to its place, and 
succeeded in gaining his own place again in safety. Tradi- 
tion ascribes to the hand and eye of Marion, the terrible effect 
of the last shot which was fired. It was aimed at the com- 
modore's ship, which had already received something more 
thJVU her due share of the 3,ttention from the fort, This 



144 The War of the Revolution. 1776 

shot, penetrating the cabin of the vessel, cut down two young 
officers, who were drinking, we may suppose, to their for- 
tunate escape from a conflict which seemed ah-eady over. It 
then ranged forward, swept three sailors from the main deck, 
and finally buried itself into the bosom of the sea." The 
ships, in a disabled condition, were compelled to retire ; and 
the victory of the Americans was complete. " Moultrie re- 
ceived the thanks of Congress, and the fort was thenceforth 
called by his name." 

35. The time was now ripe for the consideration by Con- 
gress of the great question of independence. The people, at 
first opposed to a separation from the " mother country," as 

Birth of England Avas still affectionately termed, had dis- 
the nation, cussed the question in the newspapers, in numer- 
ous pamphlets, in public meetings, and in letters. *' There 
had been a time when loyalty to the British crown was the 
distinguishing trait of the colonists, when every address and 
every petition showed their real regard for the young mon- 
arch, when no one would believe that the occupant of the 
throne was the chief cause of all their misery and that it was 
a mad and cruel king who had invoked the horrors of war 
upon his people. But the swift course of events had roused 
the i)eople and driven them on before even their leaders. 
They had discovered that their chief enemy was their king." 

36, On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, 
offered a resolution in Congress, declaring " That these 
United Colonics are, and of right ought to be, free and inde- 
pendent States." The debate that ensued was long and ani- 
mated, for all the members were not as yet quite prepared 
for a measure so decisive. At length, on the 2d of July, the 
resolution was passed ; but '' of the proceedings of Congress 
upon this eventful day no record has been preserved. We 
are better acquainted Avith the speeches delivered in the Ro- 
man Senate and the Roman Forum than with the grand dis- 
cussion of the principles of liberty and progress which was so 
thoroughly and so fearlessly carried on." The resolution 



1776 



TJie Fathers of the Declaration. 



145 



having passed, " the immortal state paper, the genuine effu- 
sion of the soul of the country," The Declaration" of In"- 
DEPEKDENCE, wliicli had been prepared by Thomas Jefferson, 
of Virginia, in behalf of a committee previously appointed, 
was ready for adoption. 




INDEPENDENCE HALL. 

37. " In a plain room were assembled somewhat less than 
fifty persons, to consider a paper prepared by a young Vir- 
ginia lawyer, giving reasons for the resolve which had been 
adopted two days before. ^ They were farmers, 
planters, lawyers, physicians, surveyors of land, fathers 

with one eminent Presbyterian clergyman. A _ °^^^® 

•^ 1 Declaration, 

majority of tiiem had been educated at such 

schools, or primitive colleges, as then existed on this conti- 
nent ; while a few had enjoyed the rare advantage of training 



' The old State House, in Philadelphia, wliere Congress met, is still 
standing. In is generally known l)y the name of Independence Hall, 
though the room in which the Declaration of Independence was adopted 
and signed received at first that appellation. The building was erected 
in 1735, but its bell-tower was not put up xintil 1750. A bell which was 
imported from England expressly for the tower, was found cracked 
upon its arrival, and thereupon it was recast in the city of Philadelphia, 
and raised to its place in 1753. By a curious coincidence, it bore around 
its crown the words : Pvockvim liberty throuylunit nil the land unto all tJie 
inhabitants tJiereof. It has a world-wide reputation as the "Liberty 
Bell." 



146 The WUr of the Bemlution. 1776 

abroad and of foreign travel. But a considerable number, 
perhaps twenty in all, and among tliem some of the most in- 
fluential, had received no other education than that which 
they had gained by diligent reading while at their trades or 
on their farms. 

38, The figure to which our thoughts turn first is tliat of 
the author of the careful paper on the details of which tlie 
discussion turned. It lias no special majesty or charm. The 
slight, tall frame, the sun-bixrned face, the gray eyes spotted 
with hazel, the red hair which crowns tlie head ; but al- 
ready, at the age of thirty-three, the man has impressed him- 
self on his associates as a master of principles, and of the lan- 
guage in which those principles find their expression, so that 
his colleagues have left to him, almost wholly, the work of 
preparing the important declaration. He wants readiness in 
debate, and so is now silent ; but he listens eagerly to the 
vigorous argument and the forcible appeals of one of his 
associates on the committee, Mr. John Adams. Now and 
then he speaks with another of the committee, much older than 
himself, a stout man, with a friendly face, in a plain dress, 
whom the world had already heard something of as Benja- 
min Franklin. 

39, These three are, perhaps, most prominently before us 
as we recall the vanished scene, 
though others Avere there of fine 
presence and cultivated manners ; 
and though all impress us as sub- 
stantial representative men, how- 
ever liarsh the features of some, 
however braAvny their hands with 
lalwr. But, certainly, nothing 
could be more unpretending, more 
destitute of pictorial charm, than 

JOHN HANCOCK. tluit suuill asscuilily of persons for 

the most part quite unknown to previous fame." 

40, While we know that John Adams was " the colossus of 




1776 



Effect of the Declaration. 



147 



the debate," yet we have no report whatever of his speeches. 
Still we can suppose, ' with Daniel Webster, that he said : 
" Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I Adams's 
give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is speech, 
true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at indepen- 
dence. But ' there's a Divinity which shapes our ends. ' The 
injustice of England has driven us to arms ; and, blinded to 
her own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, 
till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to 
reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we de- 
fer the Declaration ?" * 

4:1. On that day, July the 4th, 1776, the Declaration was 
adopted. The thirteen colonies were 
thenceforth no longer colonies. They 

were States ; and the United ^^^ , 
' Effect 

States were a nation. The of the 
people rejoiced. Tiie Dec- Declaration, 
laration was read to the army amidst 
exulting shouts. It was read in the 
open air before large and rapturous 
gatherings of men. There were bon- 
fires and illuminations. " The people 
of the United States of America were 
one people." 

42. It was evident to Washington that the British had de- 
signs against New York. As soon, therefore, as the safety 
of Boston was secured, he hastened to that city, and stationed 
the greater part of his army at Brooklyn for its defense. 
The forces of the enemy, exceeding thirty thousand in 




LIBERTY BELL. 



' This is but a small part of the supposed speech. Adams and Jeffer- 
son died .July 4th, 1826, just fifty years after the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Webster's eulogy, in which the supposed speech occurs, 
was delivered soon after their death. 

' When the members were about to sign the Declaration, Mr. Hancock, 
the president of Congress, is reported to have said : " We must be un- 
animous ; there mu.st be no pulling different way ; we must all hang 
together." To which Franklin replied: "Yes, we must, indeed, all 
hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." 



148 



Tfie War of the Resolution. 



1776 



At length, 




number, ' were being collected at Staten Island 
after days of suspense in 
battle of the American camp, tlie 
Long Island, ^^.i^igh, commanded by 
Howe, crossed to Long Island, and 
marched in three divisions. Two of 
the divisions attacked the Americans 
in front, while the third marched 
round and fell on their rear. The pa- 
triots fought bravely, but without 
avail. Some cut their way through the ranks of the enemy, 
but many were killed, or taken prisoners (Aug. 27, 177G). 

43. This was a sad disaster to the patriots. Its effects 
were seen not only in the blight it gave to the cause, in de- 
ciding the wavering to join the royal standard, and in thin- 
ning the ranks of Wasliington's army, but in giving form 
and direction to all the subsequent events of the war, and in 
making the war itself more defensive than it otherwise would 
have been. The result of the battle gave Xew York city to 
the British, and this possession they retained till the end of 
the war. From it they sent out expeditions against Connec- 
ticut, against posts and towns on the Hudson river, and 
against New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even Virginia. 

44. Favored by a fog, Washington, by a skillful move- 
ment, succeeded in getting his shattered force across the river 

Retreat of ^^ ^^w York.* " A tradition tells how the Brit- 
Washington, jg]^ camp became a*ware of the march that had 
been stolen upon it. Near the ferry resided a lady whose hus- 



' Many of the enemy's soldiers were liirert by the king. They were 
called Hessians, because tlu^ most of them had been furnished, at a cer- 
tain price for each person, by the landgrave of Ilesse-Cassel, in Germany. 

* " This extraonlinary retrc'at of the Americans across the river to New 
York, which, in its silence and celerity, equaled the midnight fortifying 
of Bunker (Breed's) Hill, was one of tlu; most signal achievements of 
the war, and redoundcil greatly to tlie reputation of Washington, Avho, 
we are toM, for forty-eight hours preceding the safe extrication of his 
army from their perilous siliiatidii, scarcely closed his eyes, and was the 
greater part of the time on horseback." — Irmng's Life of WaKhington. 



1776 Execution of Nathan Hale. 149 

band, suspected of favoring the British, had been removed to 
the interior of New Jersey. On seeing the embarkation of 
tlie first detachment of the American army, she, out of loy- 
alty or revenge, sent off a black servant to inform the first 
British officer he could find, of what was going on. The 
negro succeeded in passing the American sentinels, but ar- 
rived at a Hessian outpost, where, not being able to make 
himself understood, he was put under guard as a suspicious 
l^crson. There he was kejjt until about daybreak, when an 
officer visiting the post examined him, and was astounded by 
his story. An alarm was at once given, and the troops were 
called to arms ; but it was too late. The rear boats of the 
retreating army were halfway across the river." Washington 
continued his retreat northward, and at White Plains a par- 
tial engagement took place. Fort Washington, garrisoned by 
a large force, made a good defense, but both it and Fort Lee, 
on the opposite side of the Hudson, fell into the hands of the 
enemy ; and Washington, followed by Lord Cornwallis, re- 
treated through New Jersey and across the Delaware. 

45. Before abandoning New York and while Howe's army 
was at Brooklyn, Washington sent Captain Nathan Hale to 
the British camp to obtain a knowledge of the condition of 
the enemy. On his return, he was captured, and Execution 
taken before Howe, who, without even the form of Hale, 
of a trial, ordered him to be hung the next morning. 
" Hale calmly requested that he might be furnished with 
writing materials and a light. He wanted, he said, to ad- 
dress a few lines to his parents and friends. The request 
was brutally refused. He asked for a Bible. This request, 
too, met with a coarse denial. But there was one heart near, 
which, for a moment, throbl^ed with pity for the prisoner — 
so young, so treated, yet so mild, so firm, so soon to die, and 
— alone ! Moved, in spite of himself, the young lieutenant of 
Hale's guard interfered in his behalf, and was so far success- 
ful as to procure for him the privilege of writing. 

46. With pen, ink, paper, and a light, he was thrust at night 



150 



The War of the Revolution. 



1776 



into some desolate cliamher, or grated cell, and, for awhile, 
was left to himself. * * * What a night to Hale ! * * * 
It was morning, — morning, too, of the hallowed day ; but 
war knows no Sabbaths. The fatal hour had come. Hale 
handed the letters he had written to the marshal for delivery. 
The marshal examined them, and, as he read, grew furious at 
the noble spirit Avhich breathed in every line of the compo- 
sition ; and, for the reason afterwards given l^y himself, tore 
the letters into shreds, ' that the rebels should never know 
they had a man who could die Avith such firmness.' Early 
morning as it was, yet quite a crowd was collected around 
the place of execution. But in all that crowd there w^as not 
one face familiar to the prisoner, not one friend to whisper a 
word of consolation. With a voice, full, distinct, and slow, 
in words which patriotism will forever enshrine, at the very 
moment when the tightening cord was to crush the life from 
his young body forever, Hale exclaimed : ' I only regret that 
I have but one life to lose for my country.' " 

47. A deep gloom at this time pervaded all classes of the 
Americans. "Thus far their army had met with nothing 
but defeat, retreat, sacrifice, hardship, and discouragement." 
Battle Many of the patriots saw no other prospect than a 
of Trenton, complete failure of their treasured scheme of lib- 
erty- But Washington, who with the remnant of his army, 

had taken a position on the west 
side of the Delaware, was still 
hopeful. To strike a blow that 
woiild raise the s])irits of his 
countrymen was now his determi- 
, nation. " The opportunity came. 
The British delayed crossing the 
river, and divided their force 
among different posts throughout 
^ New Jersey. At Trenton they 



MO/^RIiTOWN 




stationed a body twelve hundred strong, composed chiefly of 
Hessians. Washington resolved to make a sudden dash upon 



1776 Battle of Trenton. 151 

this detachment. A surprise, an irresistible attack, the cap- 
ture of a post with a thousand men, might work wonders 
in tlieir moral effect. The soldiers with him were trusty 
men, twenty-four hundred of whom he jiroposed to lead him- 
self in this enterjorise. 

48. The night of the 25th of December brought storm, 
snow, and sleet, but Washington was determined on the at- 
tempt. He called upon G-lover's men to man the boats ; and 
these amphibious soldiers, who had transported the army on 
the retreat from Long Island, were ready again to strain 
every nerve for the plans of their chief. It was a long, tedi- 
ous night as they pushed across the Delaware, through float- 
ing ice and chilling spray, and it was not till four o'clock in 
the morning that the force was ready to take up the march 
on the Jersey side. Trenton was nine miles distant ; and 
not to be reached before daylight. To surprise it was sup- 
posed to be out of the question, but a return was not to be 
thought of. It began to hail and snow as the troops com- 
menced their march, and increased in violence as they ad- 
vanced, the storm driving the sleet in their faces. At eight 
o'clock the enemy's outposts were reached. Our trooj)s, sur- 
prising their outguards, dashed after them ' pell-mell ' into 
Trenton, gave the enemy no time to form, cleared the streets 
with cannon and howitzers ' in the twinkling of an eye,' dis- 
lodged the Hessians from the houses, drove them beyond into 
a plain, surrounded them, and finally compelled them to sur- 
render. A fine and remarkable exploit ! The turning-point 
of the campaign — if not, indeed, the decisive stroke of the 
war." " That victory," writes Bancroft, " turned the shad- 
ow of death into the morning (Dec. 26, 177C)." ^ 

49. This bold and successful stroke went far to restore 
confidence, but Washington's army at this time scarcely ex- 



' Nearly a thousand prisoners were taken. Generals Greene, Sullivan, 
and Colonel Stark distinguished themselves in the battle. Rahl, the 
Hessian commander, mortall}^ wouuded, was conveyed to the house of a 
Quaker family, where Washington and Greene visited the dying man. 



152 The War of the Revolution. nil 

ceeded five thousand men. With this meager force he was soon 

Battle confronted at Trenton by a large body of troops 
of Princeton, vmder Cornwullis. Escape seemed impossible, for 
the river was filled with floating ice , and to risk a battle with 
a force so much superior, seemed full of peril. Knowing 
that several regiments of the enemy were at Princeton to 
join Cornwallis, he quickly broke up his camp during the 
night, leaving the fires burning so as to deceive the British, 
and rapidly nuirchcd towards that place. At sunrise, the van 
of his forces met, near Princeton, the British regiments al- 
ready on the march. At first the American militia gave 
way ; but Washington, coming up with a select cori)s, turned 
the tide of battle and routed the enemy. The British loss 
was severe : that of the Americans, though not so great, in- 
cluded one of their best officers, the brave General Mercer 
(Jan. 3, 1777). After this victory, Washington retired to the 
heights of Morristown, where he took up his quarters for the 
rest of the winter. 

50. Among the men of Washington's army, " there was 

one, a young and gallant stranger, who had left the blushing 

vine-hills of his delightful France. The people whom he 

came to succor were not his j^eojile : he knew 

joins the them only in the melancholy story of their wrongs. 

mericans. jj^ ^^^^ ^^^ mercenary wretch, striving for the spoil 
of the vanquished : the palace acknowledged him for its 
lord, and the valleys yielded him their increase. He was no 
nameless man, staking life for roi)utation : he ranked among 
nobles, and looked unawed upon kings. He was no friend- 
less outcast, seeking for a grave to hide his cold heart : he 
was girdled by the companions of his childhood, his kinsmen 
were about him, his wife was before him. Yet, from all 
these he turned away and came. Like a lofty tree, that 
shakes down its green glories to battle Avith the winter's 
storm, he flung aside the trappings of place and pride, to 
crusade for Freedom, in Freedom's holy land. He came ; 
but not in the day of successful rebellion j not when the 



1777 JExpedition against Philadelphia. 153 

new-risen sun of Independence had burst the cloud of time, 
and careered to its place in the heavens. He came when 
darkness curtained the hills, and the tempest was abroad in 
its anger ; when the plow stood still in the field of promise, 
and briei-s cumbered the garden of beauty ; when fathers 
were dying, and mothers were weeping over them ; when the 
wife was binding uj) the gashed bosom of her husband, and 
tlie maiden was wiping the death-damp from the brow of her 
lover. He came when the brave began to fear the power of 
man, and the pious to doubt the favor of God. It was then 
that this one joined the ranks of a revolted people." 

51. In vain did Howe, on the opening of Spring, strive to 
draw Washington into a general engagement. All his man- 
euvers were frustrated by the cautious skill and watchful 

prudence of the American commander. On -, 

^ . . . Expedition 

this account Washington was called the American against 
Fa'-bi-us, from the resemblance of his policy to ^ ^ ^ ^*' 
that of the celebrated Roman general, who, contending with 
Hannibal, avoided engagements, and harassed him by con- 
tinued delay. Howe, baffled in his attemjits, and " aware 
of the madness of trying to march to the Delaware against 
Philadeli^hia, through a hostile country, Avith such force on 
his rear," withdrew his troops to Sfcaten Island. Thence, 
embarking on board the fleet of his brother. Lord Howe, 
he sailed to the Chesapeake and landed at the head of the 
bay. The destination of the fleet being unknown to Wash- 
ington, he remained for several days in painful uncertainty 
about it. When, at length, the mystery was solved, he 
marched to the Brandywine, determined to make a stand for 
the defense of Philadelphia. 

52. Here, at Chad's Ford, Brandywine creek, a battle was 
fought (Sept. 11) ; but the superior numbers of the enemy, 
aided by a stratagem secretly conducted, gave them the vic- 
tory. A large part of their army made a circuit of several 
miles, crossed the creek above the ford, and while the 
Americans were s-ttacked in front, marched round in the 



154 



The War of the Mevolution. 



1777 




rear as at the battle of Long Island. The patriots were 
routed, notwithstanding the efforts and valor of their 

officers, among whom were Lafa- 
yette and Pulaski. ' The British 
soon after entered Philadelphia, 
in spite of the exertions of Wash- 
ington to save it ; ^ but the 
greater part of their troops were 
(juartered in and about the vil- 
lage of Germantown — then a 
sul)urb of Philadelphia, now a 
part of the city, — to guard their 
new possession. Howe's expedi- 
tion had been rewarded with success and the British were 
elated ; but the patriots saw that if Howe meant to hold 
Philadelphia he had not force enough to do much else. 
Said Franklin, who had been sent to France to solicit aid 
for the Americans, and who was at Paris when the news of 
the disaster reached him : " It is not General Howe that has 
taken Philadelphia, it is Philadelphia that has taken General 
Howe." 

53. So little were the Americans disheartened by their late 
reverses that in a few days Washington resolved to attack the 
enemy at Germantown. Accordingly, at sunrise, on the 
Battle of 4t^i of October, the English were unexpectedly 
Germantown. greeted by a charge from a strong force. It was 
a comi)lete surprise ; and, at first, the success was complete. 

1 Early in 1776. Congress sent Silas Deane to France, to solicit aid. 
He Avas afterwards joined by Franklin and Arthur Lee. While France 
could at that time give no assistance openly to the Americans, Avithout 
incurring Mie hostility of Great Britain, she secretly .sent them sup])lies 
of nioney, arms, provisions, and clothing. The Count Pulaski was adis- 
tingui.shed Polish nobleman, who had previou.slj' joined the American 
arm}' as a volunteer soldier in the cause of liberty. 

^ While the Briti.sh were on their march to Philadelphia, Washington 
gave pursuit. The two armies met. and were on the point of engaging 
when a violent rain-storm prevented. Four days after. General Wayne, 
who had been sent by Washington to capture tlie enemy's baggage train, 
was surprised at Paoli, by a midnight attack, and defeated with great 
loss (Sept. 30.). 



1777-8 The Dark Hour at Valley Forge. 155 

But a dense fog, which had rendered the surprise possible, 
finally frustrated the plans of Washington, who, seeing that 
the day was lost, ordered a retreat. During the following 
month the forts on the Delaware surrendered to tlie British, 
though not till after the assailants had suffered a severe re- 
pulse ; and thus the approaches to Philadelphia were free to 
Lord Howe's fleet. 

54. " During the winter of 1778-8, Washington went into 
winter qnarters at Valley Forge. What a terrible time it 
was for the hopes of America ! Women who liad once melt- 
ed their pewter plates into bullets could not do it 

a second time. Here, within a day's march of army at 
the enemy's headquarters, there were not twelve * ^^ ^^^^' 
thousand soldiers. That winter they lay on the ground. So 
scarce were blankets that many were forced to sit up all 
night by their fires. At one time, more than a thousand 
soldiers had not a shoe to their feet. We could trace their 
march by the blood which their naked feet left in the ice." 

55. '' Out of the cold white snow rose the leafless forests, 
dark and sj^ectral ; and the wind swept in fierce gusts down 
the valley, or sighed and moaned around the thatched roofs of 
the huts. From the huts themselves came few 

signs of life, but the smoke that swayed to and dark hour 

fro over the chimneys at the will of the blast, and „ , a* 

Valley Forge. 
the shivering sentinels at the officers' doors, and 

now and then, as you passed along, a half-naked soldier peer- 
ing from a door, and muttering, in an ominous undertone, 
' No bread, no soldier. ' If you ventured Avithin, hungry 
nakedness met you on the threshold. In the streets, you 
would meet parties of soldiers yoked together to little car- 
riages of their own contriving, and dragging their wood and 
provisions from the storehouse to their huts. . . . There 
were regular parades, too, at guard-mounting ; and sometimes 
grand parades, in which you would see men half naked hold- 
ing their rusty firelocks with hands stiffened with cold, and 
officers shielding themselves from the cold in a kind of dress- 
ing-gown made out of an old blanket or faded bed-quilt." 



156 



The War of the Resolution. 



1777 



56. Meanwhile, stirring events had occurred in the north. 
With the design of separating New 
Enghmd from the rest of the 
Burgoyne's Union, hy taking pos- 

invasion. session of Lake Chani- 
phiin and tlie valley of the Hud- 
son, General Burgoyne {hur-goin'), 
commanding an army of ten thou- 
sand British and German troops, 
Canadians and Indians, had moved 
from Canada and invaded New 
York. Having captured two forts 
on Lake Champlain — Crown Point 
and Ticonderoga ^ — he advanced 
southward ; but his march was slow 
and difficult, for General Schuyler, 
the comnuinder of the American 
forces, had obstructed his way by 
destroying the Ijridges and felling 
immense trees across the roads. 
Burgoyne had previously sent Col- 
onel St. Leger against Fort Schuy- 
ler, formerly called Fort Stanwix, 
on the Mohawk. Finding tlie fort 
resolutely defended by Colonel 
Gansevoort, St. Leger, with his 
motley force of royalists and Indians, commenced a siege. 
Two days later. General Herkimer, while advancing to the 
relief of the place with a body of militia, fell into an ambus- 
cade at O-ris'-ka-ny, was defeated, and mortally Avounded. 




' General St. Clair was in command at Ticonderoga. lie had deter- 
mined upon a resolute defense, but discovering to his dismay, tliat the 
British had erected batteries on ^Movnit Deliance, a rocky heiglit com- 
manding the fort, he made a hasty retreat. His army crossed over to 
Vermont, but at Hubbardton was overtalcen and routed. The amnui- 
nition and stores, which had been sent by water, were also overtaken 
and were destroyed. 



1777 



Arnold relieves Fort Schuyler. 



157 




Schuyler, upon hearing that Gansevoort was so closely pressed, 
sent a detachment under Arnold to his aid. 

57. " Conscious of the smallness of his force Arnold re- 
sorted to stratagem, sending emissaries ahead to spread exag- 
gerated reports of the number of his troops, so as to work 
on the fears of the enemy's Indian allies, and in- 
duce them to desert. The most important of stratageinto 

these emissaries was an ec- relieve 
centric half-witted fellow, 
known throughout the country as a 
rank tory. He had been convicted as 
a spy, and only spared from the hal- 
ter on condition that he would go into 
St. Leger's camp, and spread alarm- 
ing reports among the Indians, by 
whom he was well known. To insure 
a faithful discharge of his mission, Arnold detained his broth- 
er as a hostage. All this while St. Leger was pressing the 
siege, but his Indian allies were growing sullen and intracta- 
ble. This slow kind of warfare, this war with the spade, they 
were unaccustomed to, and they by no means relished it. 
They had been led to expect easy times, little fighting, many 
scalps, and much plunder. 

58. At this juncture, scouts brought word that a force one 
thousand strong was marching to the relief of the fort. 
Rumors soon stole into the camp doubling the number of the 
approaching enemy. Burgoyne's whole army was said to 
have been defeated. Lastly came the half-witted fellow, with 
his coat full of bullet holes, giving out that he had escaped 
from the hands of the Americans, and been fired upon by 
them. His story was believed, for his wounded coat corrobo- 
rated it, and he was known to be a royalist. Mingling among 
his old acquaintances, the Indians, he assured them that the 
Americans were close at hand, and ' numerous as the leaves 
on the trees.' Arnold's stratagem succeeded. The Indians, 
fickle as the wind, began to desert. In a little while two 



158 The War of the Revolution. 1777 

hundred decamped, and tlie rest threatened to do so like- 
wise, unless St, Leger retreated. The unfortunate colonel 
found too late what little reliance was to be placed upon In- 
dian allies. He was at length obliged to decamp in such 
hurry and confusion that he left his tents standing ; and his 
artillery, with most of his baggage, ammunition, and stores, 
fell into the hands of the Americans." 

59. When Burgoyne arrived at Fort Edward, finding 
himself in want of supplies, he sent Colonel Baum {boivm) 
to seize a quantity which the Americans had collected at 

Battle of Bennington. Baum was met by the New Hamp- 
Bennington. shire militia, under General Stark. As Stark 
saw the enemy's lines forming for battle, he shouted to 
his " Green Mountain Boys :" '" There are the red-coats ! 
Before night they must be ours, or Molly Stark will be a 
widow. " He Avas successful ; and, on the same day, w ith Seth 
Warner's regiment of Vermonters that had timely come to 
his aid, he Avas again victorious, defeating a detachment that 
had been sent to reinforce Baum (Aug. IG). 

60. Every day the Indians 

brought scalps to Burgoyne's 

camp. ' One day they displayed 

twenty, and " their activity was 

commended." This 
The ^ ^ 

foes of leads us to ask : 

the patriots, jj^gj^jj^gt; whom were 

the patriots, in their heroic 
struggle for liberty, contend- 
ing? The answer is : not only flag of the united states, 

, , 1 1 , , AUOPTEU in JUNE, 1777. 2 

against the regular troops of 

' The murder of June McCrea e.xcitcd wide-spreud horror. This 
young lady, it appears, had engaged her hand in marriage to a refugee 
named .Jones, who was witli Burgoyne. Anxious to possess liimself of 
his bride, he sent a small party of Indians to bring her to him. On her 
way the Indians quarrelled, when one of them struck her down with his 
hatchet. "Tradition reports that the Indians divided lier scalp, and 
that each party carried half of it to the agonized lover." 

* The National Flag. No flag was adopted for the United States before 




1777 Surrender of Burgoyne. 159 

England, but against more than twenty thousand hired troops 
from Gi-ermany ; against thousands of vindictive tories — men 
of American birth who adhered to the king's cause, — and, 
what was far worse, against hordes of savages, whose ferocity, 
said Edmund Burke, ' ' exceeded the ferocity of all barbarians 
mentioned in history." 

61. But the atrocities of the savages aroused into terrible 
earnestness the men of New Hampshire, Vermont, and the 
western part of Massachusetts ; and they flocked, each with 
his musket, and with his powder horn slung Burgoyne's 
around his shoulders, to the American head-quar- situation, 
ters. Washington, too, though needing every man of his 
force to watch and thwart Howe, sent, from his best troops, 
five hundred riflemen under Colonel Morgan ; and soon Gen- 
eral Gates, who had succeeded Schuyler, found himself at the 
head of a large army, animated with one purpose. 

62. On the 19tli of September the great conflict between 
the two armies began. In the struggle of that day, known 
as the first battle of Stillwater, Arnold did brave service. 
The contest was severe, and was only ended when 
darkness ended it. Both parties claimed the vie- of 
tory ; but, though the British remained on the ^g°y^e- 
field of battle, their progress towards Albany had received a 
fatal check. For two weeks the armies confronted each 
other, Burgoyne hoping all the time to receive aid from Clin- 
ton, who was in command at New York. Finding, at last, 
that he must either fight or surrender, he made an effort to 
cut his way through the American lines. This brought on 
the second battle of Stillwater, sometimes called the battle 
of Saratoga, in which Burgoyne, after the most determined 
exertions, was compelled to fall back (Oct. 7). Ten days 
after, finding himself completely surrounded by the patriots, 

June, 1777, consequent]}'', up to that time the Americans had not been 
fightina; under a common banner. During the tirst months of the war, 
each colony or state had its own flag. At first, thirteen stars were ar- 
ranged in a circle to express the luiion of the states. The flag has now 
(1879) thirtj'-eight stars and thirteen stripes. Why ? 



160 



The War of the ReT)olution. 



1778 



Effects 

of the 

surrender. 



and being without provisions for his half-starved army, he 
was compelled to surrender. (Oct. 17, 1777). ' 

63. Sucli a decided victory inspired the patriots with the 
conviction that their cause would ultinuitely triumi^h. When 
the news reached France, " the effect was thrilling, electric. 

All Paris was thrown into transports of joy. " The 
government of that country decided openly to take 
the part of the struggling patriots. Treaties, 
which had previously been considered, 
were soon made, by which France ac- 
knowledged the independence of the 
United States, and agreed to aid 
them in their war with Great Britain 
(Feb. 1778). This important event 
was brouglit about, mainly, through 
the efforts and address of an old man, 
who, " with white stockings, specta- 
cles on his nose, a round white liat 
under his arm, and thin gray hair," 
had again and again appeared at the 
French court, and who was affectionately known by all the 
French people by the simple title of Dr. Franklin. 

64. '' Free from the illusions of poetic natures, Franklin 

loved truth for its own sake, and looked upon things just as 

they were. As a consequence, he had no eloquence but that 

^ , ,. of clearness. He computed that the inheritor of a 
Franklm . ^ 

at the noble title m the ninth generation represents at 
French court.j^^^g^ but the five hundred and twelftli part of the 
ancestor. In regard to money he was frugal that lie might be 
independent, and that he might be generous. He owed good 




DB. FRANKLIN. 



1 In this second battle of Stillwater, Arnold, thouiich holdins? no com- 
mand, again distinguished himself, and was .severely wounded. The 
numlxT of men, not including the sick and wounded, of Biu'gojMie's 
army that surrendered was live thousand seven lumdred and ninety-one. 
The Americans al.so acquired a large number of caimon and muskets. 
While Burgoyne was expecting aid from Cliuton, that officer captured 
forts Clinton and Montgomery, on the Hudson river, and Kingston was 
burnt. 



1778 Br)acuation of PMladelpJiia. 161 

health to his exemplary temperance. Habitually gay, em- 
ployment was his resource against weariness and sorrow ; 
and contentment came from his superiority to ambition, in- 
terest, or vanity. There was about him more of moral great- 
ness than ajopeared on the surface ; and while he made no 
boast of unselfish benevolence, there never lived a man who 
would have met martyrdom in the course of duty more surely 
or more unmoved. 

65. The official conduct of Franklin and his intercourse 
with persons of highest rank were marked by the most deli- 
cate propriety, as well as by perfect self-respect. His charm 
was simplicity, which gave grace to his style and ease to his 
manners. No life-long courtier could have been more free 
from vulgarity ; no diplomatist more true to his jjosition as 
minister of a republic ; no laborer more consistent with his 
former life as a working-man ; and thus he won respect and 
love from all. When a celebrated cause was to be heard be- 
fore the Parliament of Paris, the throng which filled the 
house and its approaches opened a way on his appearance, 
and he passed through to the seat reserved for him amidst the 
acclamations of the people. At the opera, at the theatres, 
similar honors were paid him. At the Academy he was ad- 
dressed by its president as the man who had wrenched the 
thunderbolt from the cloud, the sceptre from tyrants ; and 
both these ideas were of a nature to pass easily into the com- 
mon mind. Whatever favor Franklin met in society, what- 
ever honor he received from the Academy, whatever respect 
he gained as a man of science, whatever distinction came to 
him through the good-will of the people, whatever fame he 
acquired throughout Europe, he turned all to account for the 
good of his country." 

66. The loss of Burgoyne's army and America's alliance 

with France, alarmed the British government. - 

' Y Evacuation 

Bills were passed by Parliament, havmg for their of 
object the winning back to royalty " the revolted a e p a. 
colonies ;" and Howe's army, — in danger of being entrapped 



162 The War of the Revolution. 1778 

by a French fleet, under D'Estaing {des-tang'), on the eve 
of sailing for the Delaware, to co-operate with Washing- 
ton's forces, — was ordered to leave Philadelphia. That city 
was accordingly abandoned ; ^ but the retreating army, com- 
manded by Clinton, Howe's successor, while crossing New 
Jersey, was overtaken by Washington, at Monmouth. 

67. General Lee, who led the advance, was directed to 
make an attack upon the enemy's line ; but, instead of doing 
so, he commenced a retreat. Washington coming up, 

Battle of severely reprimanded him on the spot, ^ and again 
Monmoutli. ordered him to rally his men and advance. This 
was done, and the battle continued until nightfall, but with- 
out a decisive result (June, 1778). The Americans slept on 
their arms, intending to renew the contest early the following 
morning. "Washington lay on his cloak at the foot of a 
tree, with Lafayette beside him, talking over the strange con- 
duct of Lee, whose disorderly retreat had come so near being 
fatal to the army. What opinions he gave on the subject, in 
the course of his conversation, the marquis does not tell us : 
after it was ended he wrapped himself in his cloak, and slept 
among liis soldiers. At daybreak the drums beat. The 
troops roused themselves from their heavy sleep and prepared 
for action ; but, to their surprise, the enemy had disappeared. 
There was a deserted camp, in wliich were found four officers 
and about forty privates, too severely wounded to be conveyed 
away by the retreating army." Washington did not con- 
tinue the pursuit. " The distance to which the enemy must 

' After the evacuation of Philadelphia, General Joseph Reed, a mem- 
ber of Congress, Avas approached by a lady actinu: iind(T the direction of 
a British agent named Johnstone, and offered .£10,000 and any colonial 
office in his Majesty's gift, if he would exert his iutluence to restore a 
union of the two countries. Filled with indignation, Reed replied, "7 
am not worth purchasing, but, such as I am, (lie king of Great Britain is not 
rich enough to do it." 

" Lee's pride having been wounded by the rebuke which he had re- 
ceived on the field of battle, he sent two disrespec-tful lettcj's to Wash- 
ington. He was therefore tried by court-martial, and suspended from 
liis command for a year. He never rejoined the army ; but, just before 
the close of the war, died at Philadelphia. 



1778 Massacre of Wyoming. 163 

by this time have attained, the extreme heat of the weather, 
and the fatigued condition of his troops," deterred him.' 

68. Among the saddest events of the year 1778 was the 

massacre at Wy-o'-ming, Pennsylvania. In July a hand of 

tories and Indians entered that beautiful valley, which was 

almost defenseless, as most of the able-bodied men „ 

^ . Massacre 

had joined the patriot army, and with fir^e and of 
sword ravaged and desolated every settlement. y°""°g'- 
" The closing scene of that memorable drama was in terrible 
keeping with the bloody acts which had preceded. 2 The 
fair fields of Wyoming presented a melancholy sj^ectacle on 
the morning of the 4th. The sun arose upon the carcasses of 
the dead — not only dead but horribly mangled — strewn over 
the plain. A few stragglers had at first taken refuge in Fort 
Forty (near Wilkes'-bar-re), and, by the morning light, all 
who had not been slain, or who had not betaken themselves 
to the mountains, had collected within the fort, before which 
Colonel John Butler, with his motley forces, appeared at an 
early hour, and demanded a surrender. * * 

69. The little fort, being surrounded ))y a cloud of Indians 
and tories and having no means of defense. Colonel Denni- 
son, now in command, yielded to the force of circumstances, 
and the importunities of the women and children, and en- 
tered into articles of cajjitulation. By these it was mutually 

' The hopes of the Americans in regard to the French fleet were dis- 
appointed. D'Estaing, "was unfortunate in tlie length of his voyage. 
Ilad he arrived in ordinary time, he might have entrapped Lord Howe's 
squadron in the river, and, by co-operating with Washington, compelled 
the British army to surrender." A plan had also been formed to drive 
the British from Newport, R. I. General Sullivan, who was to act with 
D'Estaing, gained a position on the island where the city is located, 
but the French fleet, after an encounter with the enemy's fleet, sailed to 
Boston. Sullivan being thus deserted, and also threatened by a greatly 
superior force, was obliged to withdraw to the mainland (Aug. and 
Sept., 1778). 

^ A battle took place, July 3d, between a large force of tories and 
Indians, commanded by Colonel John Butler, and a hastily organized 
force of patriotic Americans, commanded by Colonel Zebulon Butler. 
Tlie Americans were defeated with horrible slaughter, and many of those 
who Avere made prisoners were put to death by fiendish torture. 



164 The War of the Revolution. 1778 

agreed that the inhabitants of the settlements should lay 
down their arms, the fort be demolished, and the stores be de- 
livered to the conquerors. The inhabitants of the settle- 
ments were to be permitted to occupy their farms peaceably. 
But the last-mentioned stipulation was entirely unheeded by 
the Indians, Avho were not, and perhaps could not be, re- 
iStrained from the work of rajiine and plunder. The surren- 
der had no sooner taken place than the savages and some 
tory fiends spread through the valley. Every house not be- 
longing to a loyalist was plundered and then laid in ashes. 
The greater part of the inhabitants not engaged in the bat- 
tle, men, women, and children, had fled to the mountains ; 
and as the work of destruction was re-commenced, many 
others followed the example. The village of Wilkesbarre, 
consisting of twenty-three houses, was burnt, and women 
and children perished in the dismal swamp to which they had 
sought refuge." ^ 

70. Toward the close of the year Clinton sent a force 
to invade Georgia. Savannah was attacked, and being de- 
fended by only a small force, Avas captured (Dec. 29). 

_ , Other disasters followed, until Georgia was en- 
Events . ' ^ 

in tirely in the possession of the British.^ Some 
' months later. General Lincoln, who was in com- 
mand of the patriot forces at the South, Avas defeated near 

* In November of the same year, a party of tories and ludiaus fell 
upon the settlement of Cherry Valley, New York, and killed or carried 
into captivity many of the settlers. To pimish the Indians, Ueneral 
Sullivan, during tlie following summer, entered the region near the head- 
waters of the !Sns([uehanna and (lenesee rivers. At Newtown, now 
Ehnira, he routed a body of the enemy in a fierce conflict known as the 
" Battle of Chemung" (Aug. 3'Jth, 1779) ; and then destroyed forty 
Indian villages. The murderous incursions of the savages were after- 
ward less f recpieut. 

- Colonel Clark, in the service of Virginia, conducted an expedition, 
which, says Bancroft, " for the valor of the actors, their fidelity to one 
anotlier, the seeming feebleness of their means, and the great result of 
their hardihood remains forever memorable in the history of tlie world. " 
Commanding a small body of men, on rafts he floated down the t)hio as 
far as the present State of Intliana, then captured Kaskaskia, whence, 
in the dead of winter, his little Jiarty of one hundred and thirty men 
marched a distance of 280 miles, much of the time up to tiieir breasts in 



1779 



Paul Jones'' s Victory. 



165 



Charleston ; he, however, in co-operation with the French 
fleet under D'Estaing, endeavored to recover Savannah. 
After a siege of about three weeks, an assault was made ; but 
the assailants were repulsed with heavy loss. Among those 
who fell was the gallant Count Pulaski (Oct. 9, 1779). 

71. Stony Point jirojects into the Hudson about forty miles 
from the city of JSTew York. It had been taken possession of 
by the British, who strongly fortified it ; but Washington, 
desiring to recover the post, planned an attack to 

be conducted by General Anthony Wayne, " the of 
Mad Anthony," so called from his daring valor. Stony Point. 
At midnight, July 15th, the Americans, in two columns, 
forced their way into the fort from opposite sides, and, meet- 
ing in the centre of the works, the garrison surrendered. 
This " stands out in high relief, as one of the most brilliant 
achievements of the war. The Americans had eifected it 
without firing a musket." 

72. A wonderful cruise, crowned by a brilliant victory, was 
made by Paul Jones, " a tough, valiant, indomitable, auda- 
cious hero, with foppish ways 
and costume, and ro- paui Jones's 
mantic, fantastic victory. 
courtesy and enthusiasm. Like 
all the greatest fighters, he per- 
formed his immortal exploits 
while he was young : he was 
but thirty when he did his great, 
est day's work." He was a Scot 
l)y birth, in the service of the 
United States. With a small 
squadron, for which he was 
mainly indebted to the efforts of 

Dr. Franklin, he sailed from France ; and, after cruising 

water, and captured Vincennes (1778-9). " Except for George Rogers 
Clark and his victories, the North-west would have been to-daj' a British 
Canadian colony." 




PAUL JONES. 



166 The War of the Remlutlon. 1779 

along the eastern coast of Scotland and England, effect- 
ing the destruction of several ships and alarming every 
settlement, he enconntered two British frigates that were 
convoying a merchant fleet. One of the most desperate 
naval enffagements recorded in the annals of naval warfare 
ensued. The Bon Homme (^lom) Richard, Jones's flag-ship, 
coming in contact with one of the frigates, Jones lashed the 
two vessels together ; and there were moments when both 
were on fire. The contest lasted from seven in the evening 
till ten at night, when the frigates struck their flags. Find- 
ing that his own ship was sinking, Jones transferred himself 
and crew to one of the prizes (Sept. 1779). 

73. The principal military operations of 1780 were carried 
on in the Carolinas. Clinton appeared before Charleston, 
and laid siege to the city. After holding out forty days, its 

brave defender, General Lincoln, was obliged to 
The ' 1 ■ 1 

loss of surrender the place ; and he and his army became 
Charleston, p^-ig^^i^e^.g ^^f ^^.^. (May 12). ^ Three expeditions, 

sent l)y Clinton into the interior of South Carolina, were 
completely successful ; and tlio British general at last felt con- 
vinced that tlie province was thoroughly subdued. 

74. Clinton was, however, greatly mistaken. The brave 
partisan leaders, Marion, " The Swamp Fox ;" Sumter, 
" The South Carolina Game Cock ;" and Pickens, " the Puri- 
tan in religion, the patriot in thought and deed," gathered 
around them the scattered patriots, and by their daring ex- 

' When, in 1781, the fortunes of tlie British at the South began to 
decline, their commander, Rawdon, called upon all persons who had 
given in tlicir adhesion to tlie royal cause to repair at once to his stand- 
ard. Among the persons so called was C-olonel Isaac Hayne, a distin- 
guished patriot of South Carolina, who liad been assured, wiien he took 
the oatli of adliercnce at the fall of Charleston (May 12tli. 1780), that he 
would never hi- required to take up arms agamst his countrymen. Be- 
lieving this call to be in violation of the agreement, and being thus com- 
pelled to assume the sword either for or against the patriots, he did not 
hesitate to choose the former. At the head of a troop of horse he 
gained some advantages, but, being surprised and captured, he was 
taken to Charleston, briefly examined, and sentenced to be hung ; and, 
though the citizens petitioned for his pardon, the sentence was duly ex- 
ecuted (1781). 




1780 Battle of Camden. 167 

ploits kept alive tlie spirit of freedom. '' These leaders were 
always engaged in breaking np the smaller posts, or in repair- 
ing losses sustained by ac- _, . 

. ri,i . Marion, 

tion. jLhe troops which Siunter, 
followed their fortunes, on a°d Pickens, 
their own or their friends' horses, 
were armed with rifles, in the use of 
which they had become expert ; a 
small jwrtion only, who acted as cav- 
alry, being provided with sabres. 
When they approached an enemy, 
they dismounted, leaving their horses 
GENERAL MAKioN. jj-^ g^j^g hiddcu spot. Vlctorlous or 

vanquished, they flew to their horses, and thus improved vic- 
tory or secured retreat. 

75. Their marches were long and toilsome, and they seldom 
partook of food more than once a day. Their combats were 
like those of the Parthians, sudden and fierce, their decisions 
speedy, and all their after measures equally prompt. With al- 
ternate fortunes they persevered to the last, and greatly con- 
tributed to that success which was the first object of their 
efforts." On one occasion, a British officer was conducted to 
Marion's camp on official business, and was politely invited 
to dinner. The whole fare proved to be only roasted sweet 
potatoes, served on pieces of bark. " And is this your usual 
mode of living?" exclaimed the officer. *' It is," said Mar- 
ion ; '' and we are content with it, and ask no pay besides." 
The officer returned feeling that it was of little use to fight 
against such men. 

76. Lincoln's surrender at Charleston left the Americans 
without a commander-in-chief of their southern department. 
To Gates, the victor at Saratoga, Congress speedily assigned 
that important command, hoping that he would Battle 

be able to check the British in their conquest of the of Camden. 
South. From his camp, a few miles from Camden, he began 
a march to attack Coruwallisj at that city, when, at the 



168 



The War of the Revolution. 



1780 



same time, by a singular coincidence, Coruwallis set his 
trooi^s in motion to attack Gates's camp. The vanguards of 
the two armies met at Sanders creek, two hours after mid- 
night (Aug. IG). " Both sides paused, and drawing back, 
waited with throbbing hearts to see what daylight might re- 
veal. At break of day the battle began. The first scene was 
soon ended. Unable to stand the fierce onset of Cornwallis's 
veterans, the militia broke and fled." The regulars, how- 
ever, commanded by the Baron de Kalb, a German, and 
" the ablest European officer who had come over to assist the 
Americans," were not so easily vanquished. 

77. " Gathering all his forces around him, Kalb led them 
to the charge. His sword was stained deepest, his battle-cry 
rang clearest ; there was triumph in the keen flash of his 
eye, if not the victor's triumph, the triumph of duty done. 
Three times he led his willing men to the charge. Three 
times they were forced back by superior numbers. For 

numbers began to tell. His horse was 
shot under him. His head was laid open 
by a sabre stroke. Wound followed 
wound, but he held his ground desperately. 
At last, Cornwallis, concentrating his 
strength in a final charge, came on. 
Kalb fell, bleeding from eleven wounds. 
' Spare the Baron de Kalb,' cried liis ad- 
jutant, vainly throwing himself upon his 
body and trying to shield it with his own 
from the thirsty bayonets. He spoke to hearts hardened by 
the fierce spirit of battle. * * For three days Kalb's 
strong frame struggled with deatli. Soldier to the last, his 
thoughts were with the brave men who had faced the enemy 
so gallantly at his command, and just before he expired he 
charged his faithful adjutant to give them his ' tlumks for 
their valor, and bid them an att'ectionate farewell.' " 

78. On the evacuation of Philadephia by the British, Ar- 
nold was placed in command at that city. Here he governed 




BAKON DE KALB. 



1780 



Treason of Arnold. 



169 



with a high hand. " His course was oppressive, unworthy of 
his rank and station, and highly discouraging to Treason 
the liberties and interests of America. " His hah- of Arnold. 
its, too, which were extravagant and expensive, increased liis 
debts and led him to misapply public funds. Though his 
brilliant services spoke eloquently in his favor, charges were 
made against him, he was tried by a court-martial, and sen- 
tenced to be reprimanded by the commander-in-chief. Wash- 
ington executed the sentence with great delicacy, " accom- 
panying the mild and considerate rei^rimand with offers of 
opportunities by which Arnold might regain the esteem of 
his country," but Arnold's mind was not in a condition to 
be favorably affected. He protested against the sentence as 
unmerited, and determined to have revenge. 

79. Though thus disgraced he still had influence with 
Washington, who remembering his gallantry at Quebec and 
Saratoga, continued to have confidence in his patriotism. 
When, therefore, Arnold, asked to be put in command at 
West Point, a strong fortress on the 
Hudson river, asserting that his 
wounds received at Saratoga unfitted 
him as yet for more active duty, 
Washington yielded. West Point was 
'" the great object of British and Amer- 
ican solicitude, on the possession of 
which were supposed by many to hinge 
the fortunes of war." Having ob- 
tained the command, Arnold secretly 
offered, by means of a correspondence, 
to betray the fortress into the hands 
of the British. The offer was accept- 
ed and Major Andre was appointed by 
Clinton to arrange the j^lan, and set- 
tle the terms of the contemplated treachery. At midnight 
Andre met the traitor at a solitary spot about six miles below 
West Point, and there^ in darkness amoijg the trees, the bar 




170 The War of the Remlution. 1780 



gain was made ; but being unable to return to New York by 
water, as had been previously arranged, he was obliged to 
cross the river and proceed by land. 

80. " Andre, coming to a ])lace where a small stream 
crossed the road and ran into a woody dell, a man stepped out 
from the trees, levelled a musket and brought hiiV to a stand, 

Arrest while two other men, similarly armed, showed them- 
of Andre, selves prepared to second their comrade. ' The man 
who had first stepped out Avore a refugee uniform. At sight 
of it Andre's heart leapt, and he felt himself secure. Losing 
all caution, he exclaimed eagerly : ' Gentlemen, I hope you 
belong to our party ? ' ' AVhat party ? ' was asked. ' The 
lower party,' said Andre. ' We do,' was the reply. All re- 
serve was now at an end. Andre declared himself to be a 
British officer ; that he had been up the country on particu- 
lar business, and must not be detained a single moment. He 
drew out his watch as he spoke. It was a gold one, and 
served to prove to them that he was what he represented him- 
self, gold watches being seldom worn in those days, except- 
ing by persons of consequence. To his consternation, the 
supposed refugee now avowed himself and his companions to 
be Americans, and told Andre he was their prisoner \ 

81. Andre was astounded at finding into what hands he 
had fallen ; and how he had betrayed himself by his heedless 
avowal. Promptly, however, recovering his self-jjossession, 
he endeavored to pass off his previous account of himself as 
a mere subterfuge. 'A man must do anything,' said he 
laughingly, 'to get along. ' lie now declared himself to be 
a Continental officer, going down to Dobbs Ferry to get in- 
formation from below ; so saying he drew forth and showed 
them the pass which had been furnished him by Arnold. 
This, in the first instance, would have been sufficient ; but 
his unwary tongue had ruined him. The susi^icions of his 
captors were completely roused. Seizing the bridle of his 

' The names of these three patriots were John Paulding, David Wil- 
liams, aud L'iuac Van Wart, 



1780 The Fate of Andre. 171 

horse, they ordered him to dismount. He warned them that 
he was on urgent business for the general, and that they 
would get themselves into trouble should they detain him. 
' We care not for that,' was the reply, as they led him 
among the thickets, on the border of the brook. Paulding 
asked whether he had any letters about him. He answered, 
no. They proceeded to search him. 

82, They obliged him to take off his coat and vest, and 
found on him eighty dollars in Continental money, but noth- 
ing to warrant suspicion of any thing sinister, and were dis- 
posed to let him proceed, when Paulding exclaimed : ' Boys, 
I am not satisfied — his boots must come off.' At this Andre 
changed color. His boots, he said, came oft' with difficulty, 
and he begged he might not be subjected to the inconve- 
nience and delay. His remonstrances were in vain. He was 
obliged to sit down. His boots were drawn off and the con- 
cealed papers discovered. Hastily scanning them, Paulding 
exclaimed, ' My God ! he is a spy ! ' Paulding demanded 
of Andre where he had gotten these pa2)ers. ' Of a man at 
Pine's Bridge, a stranger to me,' was the reply. While 
dressing himself, Andre endeavored to ransom himself from 
his captors, rising from one offer to another. He would give 
any sum of money, if they would let him go. He would give 
his horse, saddle, bridle, and one hundred guineas ;" but the 
patriots were incorruptible. They took him to the nearest 
military station, the commander of which, having no suspi- 
cion of Arnold, at once notified him of the arrest. The trai- 
tor, panic-stricken, fled, and "shrinking at the sight of the 
flag it had been his glory to defend," escaped by means of 
the sloop-of-war which had carried Andre up the river. 

83. Andre was conveyed to Tappan. On the way, he put 
questions to the officer who had charge of the escort, re- 
specting the result of his capture. The officer was silent, but 
being urged to reply, said : " I had a much-loved pate 
classmate in Yale College, by the name of "Nathan "^ Andre. 
Hale, who entered the army in 1775. Immediately after the 



172 



The War of the Resolution. 



178(1-1 



battle of Long Island, General Washington wanted infor- 
mation respecting the strength, position, and probable move- 
ments of the enemy. Captain Hale tendered his services, 
went over to Brooklyn, and was taken on his return just as 
he was passing the outposts of the enemy. Said I with em- 
phasis, Do you remember the sequel ?" " Yes," said Andre. 
" He was hanged as a spy ! But you surely do not consider 
his case and mine alike ?" " Yes, precisely similar ; and 
similar will be your fate." 

84. Andre was tried by a court comi^osed of Generals 
Greene, Lafayette, Stark, and other officers, found guilty, 
and condemned to be hung as a spy. He was led forth to 
die. The cart on which he stood moved away, and he was 
no longer in the land of the living. Forty years afterward 
his remains wore taken to England, and, though " such honor 
belongs to other enterprises and deeds," were laid in West- 
minster Abbey beneath a costly monument. ' 

85. Gates's defeat near Camden " withered the laurels 
which he had snatched at Sara- 
toga," and he was superseded 
in the command of the southern 

. department by Gen- 
ofthe eral Greene, who, says 
Cowpens. Hji^thorne, was "a 
Quaker and a blacksmith, and tlio 
best soldier, except Washington, in 
the army. " Separating his forces 
into two divisions, Greene sent 
one, under Morgan, to repress the 
ravages of the British and tories in general greene. 




1 " Arnold was marie bri2;aflier-<?eneral in the British service, and put 
on an official level with honorable men who scorned to associate with 
the traitor. What jj;ohlen reward lie was to have received had his treason 
been successful is" not known ; but six thousand three hundred and 
fifteen pounds sterling were paid to him, as a compensation for losses 
which he pretended to have sulfered in going over to the enemies of his 
country. ' ' —Irving. 



1781 Battle of Eutaio Springs. 173 

South Carolina. The successes of Morgan impelled Cornwallis 
to send Tarleton to intercept him ; but at the Cowpens, where 
the Americans made a stand, the British were completely 
routed, and " Morgan won the most extraordinai-y victory of 
the war (Jan. 17, 1781)." 

86. Hearing of the disaster to Tarleton, Cornwallis started 
in pursuit of Morgan, who, anticipating the enemy's move- 
ment, had hurried off with his prisoners and spoils. " Mor- 
gan succeeded in reaching the Catawba and cross- „ 

r . . . . Cornwallis 

mg it just two hours before those in pursuit of pursues 

him reached its banks. A heavy rain came on ^°^&^°' 
and fell all night, and by daybreak the river was so swollen 
as to be impassable." Here Greene came to the aid of Mor- 
gan, and, by skillful maneuvering, reached the fords of the 
Dan, and crossed the river as the British aj^peared on the op- 
posite bank. Cornwallis then gave up the pursuit ; but 
Greene recrossed the Dan and advanced to Guilford {gliil- 
ford) Court House. There he was attacked by 
Cornwallis (March 15) and forced to retreat ; but of Guilford 
the British suffered so severely in the battle that Court House, 
the result was almost as good as a victory to the Americans. 
Cornwallis " could not hold the ground he had so bravely 
won, and was obliged to retreat from the scene of triumph." 

87. Greene now boldly advanced into South Carolina, while 
Cornwallis, with a portion of his forces, moved northward 
into Virginia. At Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden, Greene was 
attacked by Lord Eawdon, and defeated ; but the battle was 
so stoutly contested by Greene that the enemy were too much 
cut up to make any use of their victory (April 25). Being 
obliged to abandon Camden, the British set it on fire. Few 
posts now remained in the possession of the British ; for the 
South Carolina partisan leaders had kejDt up a harassing war- 
fare against them. To make this more effective, Greene had 
detached Colonel Henry Lee with a small body _ , 

of troops, which was called " Lee's Legion. " The of Eutaw 
last battle in the South was fought at Eutaw Springs. 
Springs (Sept. 8). It was a desperate conflict j but the result 



174 



The War of the Jievolution. 



1781 



was so doubtful tluit liotli jDarties claimed the victory. 
Throughout this campaign, Greene had shown splendid ability 
as a general, althougli he had met with no positive success. 
To use his own language, he would " fight, get beaten, and 
fight again.*' 

88. After liis treason Arnold was as active in the service of 
the king as he had previously been in that of his country. He 
endeavored to do his countrymen all the harm he could. In 

command of a force of British and refugee troops, 

expedition ^^^^ boasting that he would give the Americans a 

against IjIow '' that would make the whole continent 

shake," he sailed up the James river, and at Rich- 
mond set fire to stores, workshops, and other buildings. His 
work of destruction being completed at that place, he de- 
scended the river, making landings from time to time, to 
burn, plunder, and destroy (1781). It is related that, to one 
of the prisoners captured by the British, Arnold put the ques- 
tion : " If the Americans should catch me, what would they 
do with me ?" The prompt reply was : " They would cut off 
your leg that was wounded at Saratoga and bury it with the 
honors of war, but the rest of you they would hang." 

89. The closing event of the war was now at hand. Wash- 
ington, having the aid of a French army under Rochambeau 
{ro-sham-ho'), had threatened New York ; but hearing that 

Siege '!■ French fleet, under De Grasse {grass), had ar- 

ofYorktown. i-ived in the Chesapeake, he suddenly changed his 

plan, and proceeded rapidly to Yorktown, where Cornwallis 

had taken position. It was too late for Clinton to intercept 

the march of the Americans ; ' and the British fleet had been 



' When Clinton found it was too late to send troops to Jamestown for 
the relief of Cornwallis, lie undertook to recall 

L\i\i o AVashinjJcton by sendins? Arnold, who was then 

«^^!i /./ iu New"york,*a,ii:aiust Conneeticut. Arnold plun- 

dered and burned New London ; and Colonel 
Eyre i^iye), his associate ofhcer, havin,!; taken 
Fort Griswold, l)arl)arously massacred half of tlif 
.iz:arrison after they liad surrendc^red. Colonel Led- 
yard, the American commandant, was delivering 
up his sword, when a tory otficer, seizing it, 




plunged it into Ida breast, killing him on the spot (Sept. 6th). 



1781 



Surrender of Cornwallis. 



175 



foiled by De Grasse. Cornwallis, attacked by sea and land, 
was therefore compelled to surrender his whole army prison- 
ers of war. (Oct. 19.) 

90. " At about twelve o'clock, the combined array was 
drawn up in two lines, more than a mile in length — the 
Americans on the right side of the road, the French on the 

left. Washington, mounted on a noble steed and „ , 
^ ' Surrender 

attended by his staff, was in front of the former ; of 
the Count de Kochambeau and his suite were in *'°™^* "• 
front of the latter. The French troops, in complete uniform 
and well equipped, made a brilliant appearance, and had 




THE JERSEY PRISON-SHIP. ^ 



marched to the ground with a band of music playing, which 
was a novelty in the American service. The concourse of 
spectators from the country seemed equal in number to the 
military, yet silence and order prevailed. In passing through 
the line formed by the allied troops, the march of the British 



* The patriots who had the misfortune to become prisoners of war 
during the long struggle for freedom, were treated with every possible 
insult and outrage. Many of them were confined in loathsome dungeons 
on prison-ships, where they received such inhuman treatment that 
thousands died. Of these floating hulks, the most noted was the Jersey, 
which was anchored in a small bay off the Long Island shore, opposite 
the city of New York, and used as a prison-ship until the close of the war. 



176 The War of the Revolution. 1781-3 

troops was careless aud irregular, and their aspect sullen. 
The order to ' ground arms ' Avas given by their officers with 
a tone of do-^p chagrin, and many of the soldiers threw down 
their muskets with a violence sufficient to break them." 

91. The surrender of Cornwallis was a death-blow to tlie 
hope that England would ever regain her colonics. When 
the prime minister. Lord North, heard of it, he acted as if 

Res It " ^ ^'^^^ ^^^^ entered his breast." He threw up his 
of thel arms, and walked wildly up and down the room, 
surrender, exclaiming from time to time : "It is all over ! It 
is all over !" Public opinion in England demanded peace, 
but stubborn King George would not yield at once. The 
clamor out-of-doors against the war increasing, a new minis- 
try was formed ; and a treaty was made at Paris (Sept. 3, 
1783), by which Great Britain acknowledged the indepen- 
dence of the United States, agreed to the great lakes on the 
north and the Mississippi as boundaries, and conceded the 
right to fish on the banks of Newfoundland. 

92. At the close of the war the people, although they had 
gained their independence, had a great many troubles to con- 
tend with. There was no money, for all had been spent in 

_ ,.^. the war. There was very little wealth in the 
Condition . •' . . 

of the country, for its commerce had been ruined, its 
country. ^gl.iQ^iture and manufactures very much neglect- 
ed, and a great deal of its property destroyed. Its currency 
had been so reduced in value as to be almost worthless. Con- 
gress had no means to pay the army, and the troops, not 
realizing the difficulties, became dissatisfied, considering 
themselves treated with injustice and ingratitude. Some 
of the officers were so indignant that they were ready to 
enter into a secret combination to make Washington king, 
thinking that thus they could acquire a recompense for their 
toils and sufferings. When, liowever, they made the pro- 
posal to him, he rejected it with indignation, and rebuked 
them for their selfishness and want of patriotism. 

93. On the ^5th of November, 1783, " Evacuation Day," 



I 



1783 Washington Resigns Ms Command. Til 

the British army left New York, while Washington, and Gov- 
ernor Clinton at the head of a body of soldiers and citizens, 
marched into the city and took possession. A scene of public 
festivity and rejoicing followed, closing, in the evening, with 
a grand display of fireworks. 

94. In the course of a few days Washington prepared to 
depart for Annapolis, where Congress was in session, his in- 
tention being to resign his command. " The principal offi- 
cers were assembled, when their beloved command- ,„ , . „. , 

^ _ _ Wasnington's 

er entered the room. His emotions were too farewell to 
strong to be concealed. Turning to them he said, officers. 
' With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take 
leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days 
may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have 
been glorious and honorable ;' adding, ' I cannot come to 
each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged if each of 
you will come and take me by the hand.' General Knox, 
being nearest turned to him. Washington, incapable of utter- 
ance, grasped his hand and embraced him. In the same 
affectionate manner he took leave of each succeeding officer. 
The tear of manly sensibility was in every eye ; and not a 
word was spoken to interrupt the dignified silence and the 
tenderness of the scene. Leaving the room, he passed 
through the corps of light infantry, and walked to White 
Hall ferry, where a barge was in waiting to convey him 
across the river. The whole company followed in mute pro- 
cession, with dejected countenances, testifying feelings of 
delicious melancholy which no language can describe." 

95. Everywhere as he rode through New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Maryland, Washington was greeted with joy and 
enthusiasm by the people. At Annapolis, in the presence of 
the members of Congress and of a large assem- _ . 
blage of ladies and civil and military officers, he Ms 
resigned to Congress the trust that had been com- ^'o™™^^*- 
mitted to him as commander-in-chief. His modest and dig- 
nified address delivered while doing so, and the reply which 



178 The War of tJie Revolution. 1783 

it called forth from the president of Congress, made a very 
deep impression upon all. " Few tragedies ever drew so many 
tears from so many eyes. The very next morning Washing- 
ton left Annapolis, and hastened to his beloved Mount Ver- 
non, where he arrived the same day, on Christmas Eve, in a 
frame of mind suited to enjoy the sacred and genial festival." 

96. The States had been held together by a compact known 
as the Articles of Confederation ; ^ but it was soon discovered 
that these articles gave too little power to the general govern- 

. . ment to enable it to pay the debts incurred during 

of the the war. Congress could not levy taxes : it could 

Constitution. ^^^^^ ^.^j^ ^^^^^^ ^j^^ gj..^|.gg ^^ ^^^^^ money. This the 

States were backward in doing, either because the people were 
too poor to pay taxes, or from jealousy of Congress. In 
Massachusetts two thousand men, under a leader named Dan- 
iel Shays, rose in arms to demand that the collection of taxes 
should 1)6 suspended, but the rebellion was suppressed with- 
out bloodshed (1787). 

97. It was seen that a stronger government was necessary, 
or the tie which bound the thirteen States would be severed. 
Accordingly, a convention, to revise the xlrticles of Confed- 
eration, met in Philadelphia, in May, 1787. Among the 
wise men who composed this memorable council were Wash- 
ington, who was elected its president ; Dr. Franklin, now 
more than eighty years of age ; and Alexander Hamilton, 
who had taken an active part in the Revolutionary struggle. 
After about four months' deliberation, the Articles being set 
aside, a constitution was framed, and sent forth to receive 
the assent of the individual States. Though it met with 
considerable opposition, it was finally adopted. 

98. " Neither the intrinsic merits of the Constitution, nor 

' As early as 1776 a form of government for the thirteen States was 
proposed, consisting? of twenty articles, known as the Articles of Con- 
federation ; but these were not adopted liy Congress till the next year, 
nor did they go into effect before the 1st of March, 1781. The cause 
of the delay was in the tardiness of tiu; States to ratify the articles, 
Deli^ware did uut do it till 1779 ; and Maryland, the last, till 1781, 



i 



1783 The First Political Parties. 179 

the imposing weight of character by which it was supported, 
gave assurance to its friends that it would be ultimately 
adopted" by the States. As before stated, a great xhe 
many persons were opposed to it, and exerted their Federalist, 
uifluence to have it rejected. " Under these circumstances, 
Hamilton and Jay conceived the plan of publishing, through 
the newspaper press of New York city, a series of essays, for 
the purpose of explaining and defending the Constitution ; 
and they invited Mr. Madison — whose peculiar qualifications 
for the task both of them knew — to co-operate with them in 
the work. In the commencement, these articles were ad- 
dressed to the people of New York, under the signature of 
' A Citizen ' of that State ; but the general interest and im- 
portance of the subject soon induced the writers to address 
their reflections to the people of the United States ; and, 
after the association of Madison in the work, the signature 
of ' A Citizen of New York ' was exchanged for that of 
' Publius.' Such was the origin of a series of papers which, 
collected and published under the title of the Federalist, 
have come to be recognized as one of the political classics of 
the age and language in which they were written, and will 
endure, possibly, even longer than the Constitution which 
they were intended to elucidate and defend." 

99. " Before the Constitution was adopted by the several 
States, the country became divided into two political parties 
— the friends and the enemies of that Constitution. The for- 
mer, being in favor of the establishment of a federal govern- 
ment, according to the plan marked out in the Constitution, 
naturally took the name of Federalists. Those who were oji- 
posed to the Constitution and the form of govern- _,, 
ment which it contained, as naturally took the first political 
name of Anti-federalists. Under these titles, when P^^t^^^- 
the Constitution had been adopted, and was about to com- 
mence its operations, these parties took the field, and arrayed 
themselves, both in Congress and the country, under their 
several banners." 



180 



Nummary. 



SUMMARY. 

Causes of the Revolution. — The measures on tlie part of 
England to mono|X)lize all trade with her colonies, to stitle all 
manufacturing in theui, and to impose taxes ujjon them without 
their consent were the primary causes of the Revolution. The 
immediate causes were the " Stamp Act" and the " Tea Tax." 
The " Boston Massacre" (1770), the "Boston Tea Party" (1773), 
the " Boston Port Bill" (1774), and the " First Continental Con- 
gress" (1774), were the principal iireliminary incidents. 

1775. The battle of Lexington, tlie capture; of Ticonderoga, the elec- 
tion of Washington to the command of the army, the battle of 
Bunker Hill, and Montgomery's defeat in Canada, were the prin- 
cipal events of the first year of the war. 

1776. The evacuation of Boston by the British, their defeat before 
Charleston, the Declaration of Independence, the battle of Long 
Island with its disastrous conse(juences, and Washington's suc- 
cess at Trenton, were the events of the second year. 

1777. Washington's success at Princeton, Burgoyne's invasion with 
its checks at Bennington and on the Mohawk, and his final sur- 
render, Washington's defeat at Brandywine, and the British occu- 
pation of Philadelphia, were the events of the third year. 

1778. The acknowledgment by France of the independence of the 
United Slates, the British evacuation of Philadelphia, the battle 
of Monmouth, the " Massacre of Wyoming," and the British cap- 
ture of Savannah, were the events of the fourth year. 

1779. Wayne's capture of Stony Point, Sullivan's expedition against 
the Indians, Paul Jones's victory, and the rejjulse of the Americans 
at Savannah, were the events of the fifth year. 

1780. The loss of Charleston, Gates's defeat in South Carolina, and 
" Arnold's Treason," were the events of the sixth year. 

1781. Morgan's victory at the Cowpens, the contest between Greene 
and Cornwallis in the Carolinas, and the surrendi-r of Cornwallis, 
were the events of the seventh year. 

1783. The treaty of peace ; the British evacuation of Savannah, New 
York, and Cliarleston ; and Washington's resignation of his com- 
mand, were the closing events of the war. 

MODEL FOR A WRITTEN EXERCISE, NO. 2. 
(The date of an important event may be taken as a turning-point. 
Then arrange on the one side of it the train of cause-events, and on the 
other the train of result-events). 

The Surrender of Burgoyne. 
Burgoyne invades New York. 
He captures ('rown Point and Ticonderoga. 
His expeditions against Fort Schuyler and Bennington end in 
failure. 

He is defeated in the two battles of Stillwater. 

BURGOYNE SURRENDERS TO GATES (OCT. 17). 

Ticonderoga, with all the northern part of New York, is recov- 
ered by the Americans. 

France acknowledges the independence of and formsan alliance 
with the United States, etc. 



1777. 

09 

n 

V 

P4 



Topical Remew. 181 



TOPICS FOR REVIEW. 

(See the hints and directions, p. 49.) 

Biographical. 

Benj. Franklin. (See Bigelow's Life of Franklin, also Parton's.) 115-161 
John Adams. (See Life and Times of John Adams by his grand- 
son, Charles Francis Adams.) .... 131,139,146 

Benedict Arnold. (See Sparks's Life of Arnold.) - - - 141-174 
Gen. Israel Putnam. (See Tarbox's Life of Putnam, also Pea- 
body's in Sparks's "American Biography.") - - - 135, 188 
Gen. Joseph Warren. (See A. H. Everett's Life of Warren in 

Sparks's " American Biography ;" also Frothingham's.) 129, 132, 138 
Gen. Richard Montgomery, (See Armstrong's Life of Montgomery 

in Sparks's " American Biography.") - . . . 140,141 

Ethan Allen. (See Sparks's Life of Ethan Allen in his "Amer- 
ican Biography.") ----... 135, 141 (note). 

John Hancock. (See Bancroft's History U. S.) 129, 132, 146, 147 (note). 
Lafayette. (See Bancroft's History U.'S.) ----- 152-172 

Gsn. Nathaniel Greene. (See Life of Greene by his grandson, 

G. W. Greene.) ------ 135, 151 (note)-174 

Gen. Philip Schuyler. (See Lossing's Life of Schuyler.) - 140-159 

Gen. John Stark. (See Edward Everett's Liie of Stark in Sparks's 

" American Biography.") ------- 135-158 

Gen. Horatio Gates was born in England. . - . . 159-172 
Paul Jones. (See Parton's Life of Franklin, Vol. II. ; also Sher- 
burne's Life of Paul Jones ; also Miss Taylor's.) - - 165, 166 
Gen. Anthony Wayne. (See Armstrong's Life of Wayne in 

Sparks's " American Biography.") - - - 154 (note), 165 

Gen. Marion. (See Simms's Life of Marion.) - - . - 143, 167 

Ethan Allen. (See Sparks's Life of Allen.) - - 135, 141 (note). 

Patrick Henry. (See Wirt's Life of Henry.) - - - 126, 131, 138 

Geographical. 

New York City 126-177 Princeton 152 

Philadelphia 128-178 Germantown 153, 154 

Boston 128-142 Valley Forge 155 

Concord 131-134 Bennington 158 

Lexintrton 132-134 Saratoga 159 

Ticonderoga 135, 156 Wyoming 163 

Quebec 140-142 Savannah 164, 165 

.Charleston 128, 142-166 West Point 169 

Brooklyn 147, 148 Yorktown 174,175 

Camden, S. C 167-173 Mount Vernon 177 

Historical. 

Causes of the Eevolution. . .125-131 Exp'n against Philadelphia 153, 154 

Boston Tea Party 128-130 Surrender of Burgoyne 159, 160 

Continental Congress 130, 139 Treaty with France. ...... 160 

Battleof Lexington 132-134 Massacre of Wyoming 163, 164 

Battle of Bunker Hill 135-138 Treason of Arnold 168-172 

Expedition against Canada. 140, 141 Surrender of Cornwallis. . . . 175 

Declaration of Indejiendence 144-147 History of the Constitution. .178, 179 

Biittle of Long Island 147, 148 Washington's movements 

Battle of Trenton 150, 151 during the war 131-178 



182 



^ ashinc/ioii 6- Admuilstratloii. 



1789 



SECTION IV, 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL PERIOD. 



Washington' s A dministration. 

1. The first Congress, midcr tlie Constitution, ought to 
have met at New York on 
the 4th of March, 1789 ; but 

in consequence of 
pTerS. ^elay in the ar- 
rival of its mem- 
bers, tlie most of whom had 
to make their way on horse- 
back or by sea, a quorum 
was not secured before the 
30th. On counting the votes 
wliicli liad been cast by the 
state electors, it was found 
that all of them had been 
given for Washington. He 
was consequently declared 
the president elect of the United States, and a message was 
at once sent to Mount Vernon to inform him of his elec- 
tion. ^ 

2. " Washington desired to proceed to New York in the 
most quiet manner, but the flow of veneration and gratitude 
could not be suppressed." In Maryland and Pennsylvania he 




WASHINGTON. 



' " Washington received sixty-nine votes, that being the whole num- 
ber of electors voting. .John Adams received thirty-four votes in all, 
not a majority, but sutticient, as the Constitution then stood, being the 
second highest number, to make him vice-president." 



1789 Inauguration of Washington. 183 

was publicly welcomed and entertained. "Ascending the left 
bank of the Delaware, he crossed into New Jersey. The 
people of Trenton remembered the battles fought jnaueuration 
in their neighborhood twelve years before, and if oC 
his reception at other places was more splendid, ^^ ^^^ °^' 
nowhere was it so graceful and touching. On the bridge 
across the river which flows through the town into the Dela- 
ware, the same bridge across which Washington had re- 
treated before Cornwallis's army on the eve of the battle of 
Princeton, a triumjjhal arch had been erected, supported on 
thirteen pillars, twined with evergreens, flowers, and laurel. 
Beneath this arch, which bore for inscription ' The Defender 
of the Mothers will be the Protector of the Daughters,' 
were assembled a party of matrons, mixed with young girls 
dressed in white, who were holding baskets of flowers in their 
hands. As Washington apjjroached they began to sing a 
little ode prepared for the occasion, and, suiting the action 
to the words, they ended the chant in strewing their flowers 
before him. 

3, As the new Federal Hall in New York was not yet fin- 
ished, a week elapsed before preparations were completed for 
administering to the president elect the oath of office. The 
place selected for that purpose was the outer gallery or bal- 
cony of the Senate Chamber, visible for a long distance down 
Broad Street, which it fronted, thus affording opportunity 
to witness the ceremony to a large number of eager sjjectators. 
At nine o'clock all the churches in the city were opened for 
prayer and religious services. A little after noon the presi- 
dent elect left his house escorted by the city cavalry, and fol- 
lowed by a long procession of citizens. 

4. Having entered the Senate Chamber, where the two 
houses were assembled to receive him, he was conducted to 
an elevated seat at the head of the room. After a momentary 
silence, all being seated, the vice-president. John Adams, 
rose and stated to the president elect that all was ready for 
the administration of the oath, whenever he Avas prepared to 



184 WasliingtoiH s Administration. 1789-91 

receive it. Upon this intimation Washington proceeded to 
the balcony, followed by the senators and representatives. 
The oath was administered by the Chancellor of New York, 
Robert R. Livingston. As he finished the ceremony he ex- 
claimed aloud, ' Long live George Washington, President of 
the United States !' to which the assembled multitude re- 
sponded in long and enthusiastic shouts, and all the bells 
in the city rang out a joyful peal (April 30)." 

5. On assuming the duties of president, Washington called 
to his aid, as his cabinet, or body of advisers, the ablest men 
in the country that he could select. Thomas Jefferson was 

chosen Secretary of State ; Alexander Hamilton, 

The first Secretary of the Treasury : and Henry Knox, Sec- 
measures, '' '' ' J ^ 

retary of War. Edmund Randolph was also ap- 
pointed Attorney-General. The first great difficulty was to 
provide for the payment of the debts incurred in carrying on 
the late war. A plan was proposed by Hamilton, who, said 
Daniel Webster, many years after, " smote the rock of the 
national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed 
forth. He touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and 
it sprung upon its feet." All the war debts of the States 
were assumed by the general government. Ample provision 
was made for the payment of all just claims. Commerce be- 
gan to flourish. The American flag was soon seen on every 
sea. A national bank and mint were established (1791). 
The Ship of State was fairly launched. 

6. North Carolina and Rhode Island were the last to adopt' 
the Constitution. The first admission to the Union was of 
Vermont. The people of that part of our country had been 

The 14th ^o^^g knocking at the door of Congress for admis- 
state. sion, but New York objected. The Vermont ter- 
ritory had been claimed by both New York and New Hamp- 
shire ; but, as the governors of the latter in colonial times liad 
disposed of a large portion of the land in numerous tracts, 
known as the " New Ham})sliire Grants," and, as New York's 
claim had been confirmed by the crown, what was left to 



1791-5 Foreign Affairs. 186 

New Hampshire of property in the soil was supposed to be of 
little value. Finally, however, the payment of thirty thou- 
sand dollars to New York secured the consent of that claim- 
ant, and the " Green Mountain Boys" took their seat in the 
great family of States (1791). 

7. Treaties had been made with most of the Indian tribes 
within the territorial limits of the United States, but those 
north of the Ohio river became dissatisfied with the boun- 
daries which had been assigned them, and showed 

their dissatisfaction by numerous hostile acts. 
They waylaid the boats in which emigrants were proceeding, 
attacked settlements, and committed many murders. Wash- 
ington sent a force under General Harmar to subdue them, 
but he was defeated. A force under St. Clair was next sur- 
prised and defeated with heavy loss ; and it was not until 
1794 that the savages were overcome. In that year they were 
defeated by General Wayne, " the Mad Anthony of the Re- 
volution," in a desperate battle fought on the banks of the 
Maumee river. This victory, followed up by severe measures, 
compelled the Indians to sue for peace, and at Greenville, 
where eleven hundred warriors had assembled, a treaty was 
made by which a large tract of territory was ceded to the 
United States (1795). 

8. The French, being at war with England, expected to re- 
ceive aid from this country ; and many of the American peo- 
ple, grateful to their old allies, were desirous of giving it. 
Washington, however, believing that such a course Foreign 
would imperil the liberties of the United States, affairs, 
recommended a neutral policy. The French Minister here 
tried to involve the people in the war by fitting out privateers 
in American ports ; but at Washington's request he Avas re- 
called. Difficulties had also arisen with England, growing 
out of violations of the treaty of 1783 ; but these were disposed 
of by a new treaty negotiated by John Jay, Chief Justice, 
who had been sent to England as a special envoy for the pur- 
pose. A large number of persons, including those who de- 



186 



Washington'' s Administration. 



1795 




sired to aid tlie French, regarded this treaty with decided aver- 
sion. They thonglit it favored the English too much. Still 
it was ratified by the Senate, though in the face of a deter- 
mined opposition on the i)art of many Senators, and was ap- 
proved by Washington (1795). 

9. "This, one of the wise statesmen of the Revolution, who 

survived to perform services of 

inestimable value to the new 

constitutional govern- 
JohnJay. , ^ , 

ment was a man whose 

character needs no apologists, 
Webster finely said that ' the spot- 
less ermine of the Judicial robe, 
when it fell on the shoulders of 
John Jay, touched nothing not as 
spotless as itself,' His integrity 
ran down into the roots of his 
moral being, and honesty was in 
him a passion as well as a princi- ''^°^' '^^^• 

pie. The celebrated treaty with Great Britain which he ne- 
gotiated as the Minister of the United States occasioned an 
outburst of wrath such as few American diplomatists have 
ever been called upon to face ; but in all tlie fury of opposi- 
tion to it, few opponents were foolish enough to assail his in- 
tegrity in assailing his judgment and general views of public 
policy." ' 

10. " In the fall of 1792, Eli Whitney, of Massachusetts, 

WMsA-y Imurrection. In 1791 Congress imposed a duty on domestic 
liquors. This caused great discontent in several quarters, but particu- 
larly in western Pennsylvania, where, in 1794, tlie people rose in rebel- 
lion, and declared tliey would not pay tlie tax. Upon the ajiproach of a 
body of militia sent by Washington, the insurgents changed their minds 
and yielded. 

' .John Jay was born in New York City in 174.1. He was a member 
of the " First Continental Congress ;" with Franklin, .John Adams, and 
Henry Jjaurens, negotiated the treaty of 17H;5 at Paris (see p. 17()) ; ren- 
dered important aid in favor of the adoption of the Constitution (see 
p. 179), and was the first Chief .Justice of the United States, which 
office he resigned on his return from England, in 1795. 



1795 Invention of the Cotton-Gin. 187 

made an engagement with a Mr. B., from Georgia, to go to 
that State and reside in his employer's family as a private 
teacher. On his way thither he had as a travel- , 
ing companion Mrs. Greene, widow of the eminent of the 
Eevolutionary general, who was returning with her ^° o^-g^ii- 
children to Savannah, after spending the summer at the 
North. Mr. Whitney's health being infirm on his arrival at 
Savannah, Mrs. Greene kindly invited him to the hospitali- 
ties of her residence until he should become fully restored. 
At that time she happened to be engaged in embroidering on 
a peculiar frame known as a tambour. It was badly con- 
structed, so that it injured the fabric, while it impeded its 
production. Whitney eagerly volunteered to make her a bet- 
ter one, and did so on a plan wholly new, to her great delight 
and that of her children. 

11. A large party of Georgians, from Augusta and the plan- 
tations above, soon after paid Mrs. G. a visit. Among the 
topics discussed by them around her fireside was the depressed 
state of agriculture, and the imj)Ossibility of profitably extend- 
ing the culture of cotton, because of the trouble and expense 
incurred in separating the reed from the fiber. These repre- 
sentations impelled Mrs. Greene to say : ' Gentlemen, apply 
to my young friend, Mr. Whitney — he can make any thing.' 
She thereupon took them into an adjacent room, where she 
showed them her tambour-frame, and several ingenious toys 
which Mr. W. had made for the gratification of her children. 
She then introduced them to Whitney himself, extolling his 
genius and commending him to their confidence and friend- 
ship. 

12. Mr. Whitney promised nothing and gave little encour- 
agement, but went to work. No cotton in the seed being at 
hand, he went to Savannah and searched there among ware- 
houses and boats until he found a small parcel. This he car- 
ried home and secluded with himself in a basement room, 
where he set himself at work to devise and construct the im- 
plement required. Tools being few and rude, he was con- 



188 WasMngto7i^ s Administration. 1795 

strained to make better — drawing his own wire, because none 
could, at that time, be bought in the city of Savannah. His 
mysterious hammering and tinkering in that solitary cell were 
subjects of infinite curiosity, marvel, and ridicule among the 
younger members of the family. But he did not interfere 
with their merriment, nor allow them to interfere with his 
enterprise ; and before the close of the winter his machine 
was so nearly perfected that its success was no longer doubt- 
ful. Mrs. Greene, too eager to realize and enjoy her friend's 
triumph, invited an assemblage at her house of leading gen- 
tlemen from various parts of the State, and, on the first day 
after their meeting, conducted them to a temporary building, 
erected for the machine, in which they saw, with astonishment 
and delight, that one man with Whitney's invention, could 
separate more cotton from the seed in a single day than he 
could without it by the labor of months." 

13. When the cotton-gin was invented the whole business 

in the interior of the Southern States was in a languishing 

condition ; and for want of employment the inhabitants were 

_ , , leaving^. This invention at once set the country 
Value of f= . -^ 

the in motion. To planters and others, who were 
inven ion. (jgpj.gggg(j -^i^}^ poverty, it opened the way to em- 
ployment, wealth and respectability. Cotton soon began to 
supplant wool, flax, silk, and even fur. By means of this 
machine the annual production of cotton in the Southern 
States alone was increased from five thousand bales to over 
five million bales, or one million tons, in value equal to seven- 
eighths of all the cotton produced on the face of the earth. 
Then " cotton was King, and his majesty on his throne did 
not seem to be aware of the influence which surrounded his 
cradle." 

14. The Atlantic States were the chief seat from which 
issued the migration destined to people the west. " An ax. 

Migration '*' couple of horscs, and a heavy rifle, with store of 
to the West, ammunition, were all that were considered neces- 
sary for the equipment of the man who, with his family, 



Migration to the West. 189 

remoTcd to the new State ; assured that, in that land of ex- 
uberant fertility, he could not fail to provide amply for all 
his wants. To have witnessed the industry and perseverance 
of these emigrants must at once have proved the vigor of their 
minds. Regardless of the fatigue attending every movement 
which they made, they pushed through an unexplored region 
of dark and tangled forests, guiding themselves by the sun 
alone, and reposing at night on the bare ground. They had 
to cross numberless streams on rafts, with their wives and 
children, their cattle, and their luggage, often drifting to con- 
siderable distances before they could effect a landing on the 
opposite shores. To these troubles add the constantly impend- 
ing clanger of being murdered, while asleep in their encamp- 
ments, by the prowling and ruthless Indians. Others, perhaps 
encumbered with too much luggage, preferred descending the 
stream.* They prepared arks pierced with port-holes, and 
glided on the gentle current. 

15. Many travelers have described these boats, formerly 
called arks, but now named flat-boats ; but have they told you 
that in those times a boat thirty or forty feet in length, by 
ten or twelve in breadth, was considered a stupendous fabric ? 
— that this boat contained men, women, and children, huddled 
together with horses, cattle, hogs, and poultry for their com- 
panions, while the remaining portion was crammed with ve- 
getables and packages of seed ? The roof or deck of the 
boat was not unlike a farm-yard, being covered with hay, 
ploughs, carts, wagons, and various agricultural implements, 
together with numerous other things, among which the spin- 
ning-wheels of the matrons were consj)icuous. Have they 
told you that these boats contained the little all of each family 
of venturous emigrants, who, fearful of being discovered by 
the Indians, moved about in darkness when night came on. 



' The particular stream referred to here is the Ohio river, and the 
emis^rants were going to the new State of Kentucky ; but the description 
will apply to the western emigrations that took place, not only then, but 
in succeeding years, and even to recent times. 



190 WasMngtorC s Administration. 1796 

groping tlieir way from one part to another of their floating 
habitations, and denying themselves the comforts of fire or 
light, lest the foe that watched them from the shore should 
rush upon them and destroy them ?" 

16. The western portion of several of the States extended 
to the Mississippi river, their colonial cliarters l)cing the basis 
for such possession. One after another these States surren- 

^j^g dered the control of their western lands to the 
15tiiand general government, and the region north of the 
■ Ohio was organized under the name of the North- 
west Territory (1787). From the region south of the Ohio, 
two States were formed during the administration of AVash- 
ington, — Kentucky,! previously a part of Virginia (1792), and 
Tennessee, previously a part of North Carolina (179G). 

17. Washington had now served nearly eight years, having 
been unanimously re-elected for a second term. In 1796 he 
was again urged to be a candidate for a third time, but he 

positively declined. The country, being at peace 

of with the world and in a prosperous condition, could, 

Washington, j^g believed, dispense with his services. In that 

year he put forth to his countrymen his memorable '' Farewell 

Address," the closing portion of which is herewith given : 

18. " In reviewing the incidents of my administration, I 

_- , . . , am unconscious of intentional error, vet I am 

Washington's . - ■^ 

Farewell nevertheless too sensible of my own defects, not to 

^^^' think it probable that I may have committed 

many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the 

' Daniel Boone, the pioneer in the settlement of Kentucky, was born 

in Pennsylvania in 17:35, and died in Missouri in 1830. At the age of 
eighteen, lie went with his fatlier's family to Nortli Carolina, where, a 
few years later, he was married. After making several hunting excur- 
sions, he set out, in 1700, with five companions, to explore tlie Kentucky 
country. During the next twenty-five years, his life, as an exjilorer, 
pioneer, hunter, guide, and settler, was tlie most prominent one in the 
history of tliat region. He had many encounters witii tlie IndiiUis, and 
was three times captured, but in eacli case effected his escape. In 1775, 
he built a fort on tlie Kentuclcy river, around which grew up the settle- 
ment and village of Boonsl)oro'. After Kentucky was admi'ted into the 
Union, Boone removed to Missouri. 



1797 



Inauguration of Adams. 



191 



Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may 
tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country 
will never cease to view them with indulgence ; and that after 
forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service, with an 
upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be con- 
signed to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of 
rest. Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and 
actuated by that fervent love toward it, which is so natural 
to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his 
progenitors for several generations ; I anticii:)ate with pleasing 
exjDCctation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, 
without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst 
of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under 
a free government — the ever favorite object of my heart, and 
the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and 
dangers." 

John Adams's Adm.inistratio7i. 



1, John Adams, who had been the vice-president during 

the whole period of Washing- 
ton's administration, was now 
chosen president; and 

Thomas Jefferson was Inauguration 

of Adams, 
elected vice-president. 

Both gentlemen repaired to Phil- 
adelphia, then the capital, where, 
in the presence of the two houses 
of Congress, of Washington, and 
other spectators, including a 
large number of ladies, the in- 
auguration of the new president 
JOHN ADAM3. ^^^-^ pl^^g (March 4, 1797). 

2. The neutral position taken by the United States in the 
wars between England and France, deeply offended the latter 
power, and the ratification of Jay's Treaty by the American 




192 Jolm Adams's Administration. 1800 

Senate greatly increased the unfriendly feeling. The hos- 
tility of the French soon showed itself in various ways. 

Their vessels at first insulted the United States 
Hostilities ^.^g^ then, growing bolder, captured our merchant 

ships. At the capital of France, the envoys sent by 
our government were insultingly met by the French Directory, 
and informed that nothing would be accomplished until a 
present of money was made. It being intimated that the 
penalty of a refusal would be war, William Pinckney, one of 
the envoys, replied : " War be it then ! Millions for de- 
fence, but not a cent for tribute ;" and this became the uni- 
versal cry of the American people. Congress adopted meas- 
ures to protect the country and its commerce ; and Washing- 
ton was once more called upon to take the command of the 
land forces. Again sacrificing the comforts of retirement, 
he accepted ; but the army was never raised, for the French 
government was soon afterward overturned, and peace was 
made with Napoleon Bonaparte, the head of the new govern- 
ment (1800).' 

3. " Washington did not live to witness the restoration of 
peace. On Friday morning (Dec. 1799), while attending 
to some improvements upon his estate, he was exposed to 

a light rain, by which his neck and hair became 
Death of ^g^ j^^j^ apprehending danger from this circum- 
Washington. i n f, • i,- i 

stance, he passed the aiternoon m his usual man- 
ner ; but, in the night, was seized with an inflammatory 
affection of the windpipe. The disease commenced with a 

' Two acts of Congress, known as the " Alien and Sedition Laws." 
were intended to counteract tiie schemes of the French Directory, wliose 
emissaries in this country abused the freedom of the press by defaming 
the administration and exciting the people against it. The president, by 
the "Alien Act," was authorized to banish such foreigners as in his 
opinion were dangerous to the peace and safety of the coiuitry. The 
" Sedition Act" provided for the punishment of all persons found guilty 
of abusing the freedom of speech or f)f the press. Both acts were de- 
nounced i)y the enemies of tlie administration as tyrannical, and their 
unpopularity, it was generally believed, contributed more than any other 
cause to the overthrow ot the Federal party. They expired by theif 
own limitation, 



1799 Character of Washington. 193 

violent ague, accompanied with pain in his throat, a sense 
of stricture in the same part, and a cough, which were soon 
succeeded by fever and a quick and laborious respiration. 
Believing at the commencement of his complaint, as 
well as through every succeeding stage of it, that its conclu- 
sion would be mortal, he submitted to the exertions made for 
his recovery, rather as a duty than from any expectation of 
their efficacy. Some hours before his death, after repeated 
efforts to be understood, he succeeded in expressing a desire 
that he might be permitted to die without interruption. 
After it became impossible to get anything down his throat 
he undressed himself and went to bed, there to die. To his 
friend and physician, Doctor Craik, who sat on his bed and 
took his head in his lap, he said with difficulty : ' Doctor, I 
am dying, and have been dying for a long time, but I am 
not afraid to die. ' At half-past eleven on Saturday night, 
when retaining the full jiossession of his intellect, he expired 
without a struggle (Dec. 14, 1799)." 

4. " Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a 
temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public 
and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame 
and the blessings of posterity. Born beneath an 

humble but virtuous roof, brought up at the knees Ch^v^.'^^^f °^ 

£5 1 .11 Washington, 

of a mother not unworthy to be named with the 

noblest matrons of Rome or Israel, the good hoy, as she de- 
lighted to call him, passed uncorrupted through the tempta- 
tions of the solitary frontier, the camp, and the gay world, 
and grew up into the good man. ... I cast my eyes 
along the far-stretching galleries of history, still echoing to 
the footsteps of the mighty dead. I behold with admiration 
the images and the statues of the great and good men with 
which they are adorned ; I see many who deserved well of 
their country in civil and military life, on the throne, in 
the council-chamber, on the battle-field, while they lived, 
wreathed with well-worn laurels and scarred with honest 
wounds. Hampden and William of Orange, Robert Bruce 



194 



Jefferson' s Administration. 



1801 



and King Alfred ; and, in the olden times, Cato, and Tully, 
and Demosthenes, and Ti-mo'-le-on, and E-pam-i-non'-das : 
but I behold, in the long line, no other Washington." 

5. The sor- 
rowful news 
was convey- 
ed to all 
parts of the 
land. Every 
heart was 
sad. In Con- 
gress, fitting 
honors were 
paid to the 
memory of 
til c man 
wlio, in the 
language of 

the oration pronounced by Henry Lee, of Virginia, was '' first 
A nation ill war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his 
mourns, countrymen." His mortal remains rest at Mount 
Vernon ; ^ and to this day the steamers that ply upon the 
Potomac strike mournful notes upon their bells as they pass 
the spot where Washington spent the happiest days of his 
life, and where he died and was buried. 




MOUNT vi;i:non. 



Jejfer son's Aaministration. 

1. Adams was president only four years. Towards the 
close of his term a fierce struggle took place between the two 
great political parties of tlie day, the Federalists and the 
Kepublicans, which resulted finally in the choice of Thomas 

' Mniint Vernon is situated on the western bank of the Potomac, fifteen 
miles from Washinuton city. The place, comprising the mansion, the 
lonil), an(l two hundrcil acres of the orisxinal estate, was sold Ity a nephew 
of Georiie Washiniiton to the " Ladies' Mount Vernon Association" for 
two hundred thousand dollars. It is the desi-rn of the Association to 
liold it forever us a phn:e of public resort and pilgrimage. 



1802 



Admission of Ohio. 



195 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



Jefferson for president, and Aaron Burr for vice-president.^ 
Jefferson was anxious that the cere- 
monies of his inauguration 

should be few and simple. Inauguration 
■•■ of Jeiferson. 
An English gentleman who 

was present thus wrote of his appear- 
ance on the occasion : " His dress was of 
plain cloth, and he rode on horseback 
to the Capitol, dismounted without as- 
sistance, and hitched the bridle of his 
horse to the palisades." The inaugura- 
tion took place in the city of Washing- 
ton, the nation's new capital (March 4, 
1801), to which place the public offices 
had been removed the year before. 

2. As previously stated, the region north of the Ohio river 
was organized under the name of the Northwest Territory. 
The south-eastern part of this territory was the first that was 
set apart for State purposes, and, in 1802, it was Tj^g 
admitted into the Union as the State of Ohio. A I'^^h State, 
large portion of the land so set apart, along and near 
Lake Erie, and known as the Western or Connecticut Ee- 
serve, had previously belonged to Connecticut.^ This (in 

' There was no choice by the electors, and consequently the election 
went to the House of Representatives, where, after a week's contest, 
Jefferson finally succeeded in obtaining a majority of the States in his 
favor. Jefferson and Burr were Republican candidates. Under the 
original clause of the Constitution providing for the election of president 
and vice-president, the electors voted for two persons, without naming 
their choice for the higher position," the person having the greatest num- 
ber of votes" being declared president, and the next, vice-president. 
John Adams was a candidate of the Federalists for a second term. 

^ " The charter of Connecticut was derived from the Plymouth Com- 
pany. This grant was made in 1021, in the most ample form, covering 
the country west of Connecticut, to the extent of its breadth, from sea to 
sea. New Netherlands, being then a Dutch possession, could not be 
claimed as a portion of this munificent grant, if for no other reason, for 
the very good and substantial one that in the grant to the Plymouth 
Company an exception was matle of all such portions of the territory as 
were ' then actually possessed or inliabited by any other Christian prince 
or State, '" — Stone's History of Wyoming. 



196 Jefferson's Administration. 1803 

1795) was sold to a company of speculators, and, at the time 
of Ohio's admission to tlie Union, more than a tliousand 
settlers were already established on the Reserve. The money 
so received by Connecticut was the original capital of her 
school fund. 

3. In the spring of 1803, while Jefferson was preparing to 
send an expedition under Lewis and Clarke, to explore the 
Missouri river and its head branches, and thence to find a 

water communication across the continent to the 

Purchase p-icific, if such existed, the news reached this 
of Louisiana. ' ' 

country that France, for fifteen millions of dol- 
lars, had ceded the whole of the Louisiana territory to the 
United States. " The Missouri and the Mississippi rivers, 
with their hundred tributaries, give to the great central 
basin of our continent its character and destiny. The outlet 
of this mighty system lies through the State of Louisiana. 
The ancient province so called, the proudest monument of 
the mighty monarch whose name it bears, passed from the 
jurisdiction of France to that of Spain in 17C3. Spain 
coveted it, not that she might fill it with prosperous colonies 
and rising states, but that it might stretch as a broad waste 
barrier, infested with warlike tribes, between the Anglo- 
American power and the silver mines of the AVest. Witli the 
independence of the United States, the fear of a still more 
dangerous neighbor grew upon Spain, and in the insane ex- 
pectation of checking the progress of the Union westward, she 
threatened, and at times attempted, to close the mouth of the 
Mississippi, on the rapidly increasing trade of the West. 

4. The bare suggestion of such a policy roused the popula- 
tion upon the banks of the Ohio, then inconsiderable, as one 
man. This subject was for years the turnin.;' point of thc 
politics of the West, and it Avas perfectly well understood, 
that, sooner or later, she Avould be content with nothing 
less than the sovereign control of the mighty stream 
from its head spring to its outlet in the Gulf. So stood 
affairs at the close of the last century, when the colos- 



1803 PurcJiase of Louisiana. 197 

sal power of the first Napoleon burst upon tlie world. 
In the vast recesses of his Titanic ambition, he cherished as 
a leading object of his policy, to acquire for France a colonial 
empire which should bahince that of England. In pursuit of 
this policy, he fixed his eye on the ancient regal colony which 
Louis XIV. had founded in the heart of North America, and 
he tempted S^^ain by the paltry bribe of creating a kingdom 
for a Bourbon prince, to give back to France the then bound- 
less waste of the territory of Louisiana. The cession was 
made by the secret treaty of 1800, of which one sentence only 
has ever been published, but that sentence gave away half a 
continent. 

5. The youthful conqueror then concentrated all the re- 
sources of his mighty genius on the accomplishment of his 
vast project. If successful, it would have esta1)lished the 
French power at the mouth and on the riglit bank of the 
Mississippi, and would have oi")posed the most formidable 
barrier to the expansion of the United States. The peace of 
Amiens {am'-e-enz), at this juncture, relieved Napoleon from 
the pressure of the war with England, and every thing seemed 
propitious to the success of the great enterprise. The fate of 
America trembled for a moment in a doubtful balance, and 
five hundred thousand citizens in that region felt the danger 
and sounded the alarm. But in another moment the aspect 
of affairs was changed by a stroke of j^olicy, grand, unex- 
pected, and fruitful of consequences perhaps without a par- 
allel in history. 

6. The short-lived truce of Amiens was about to end, the 
renewal of war was inevitable. Napoleon saw tliat before he 
could take possession of Louisiana it would be wrested from 
him by England, wlio commanded the seas, and he determined 
at once, not merely to deprive her of this magnificent con- 
quest, but to contribute, as far as in him lay, to build up a 
great rival maritime power in the West. The government of 
the Xluited States, not less sagacious, seized the golden 
moment— a moment sucli as does not happen twice in a thou- 



198 JeffersorCs Administration. 1803 

sand years. Mr. Jefferson perceived that, unless acquired by 
the United States, Louisiana would in a short time belong to 
France or to England, and with equal wisdom and courage 
he determined that it should belong to neither. True, he 
held the acquisition to be unconstitutional, but he threw to 
the winds the resolutions which had just brough t him into 
130 wer ; he broke the Constitution and he gained an empire." ' 

7. In the same year (1803), an expedition was sent to the 
Mediterranean to repress the piracies of the Barbary States, 
which powers constantly sent out armed vessels to capture the 

^ . , merchant ships of other nations, and make slaves 
the Barbary of their crews. It was a common custom for na- 
^ ^^" tions to pay tribute to these states to obtain free- 
dom from their attacks. This, however, did not restrain their 
hostility and insolence ; and a fleet under Commodore Preble 
[preb'-el) was sent against them. Preldc first entered the 
port of Morocco, and, after exacting terms of the emperor, 
sailed for Tripoli {fn'p'-o-Ie) ; but, before his arrival, a serious 
accident had occurred. 

8. One of his ships, the frigate " Philadelphia, pro- 
ceeding to Trii^oli, while standing close in shore under a 
heavy press of sail, in pursuit of a vessel attempting to 
enter the harl)or, ran Avith terriiic force upon a sunken 
rock, ujion whicli, in spite of all efforts to set her free, she 
remained fixed. While her crew were engaged in attempts to 
get her off, she was attacked by a flotilla of Tripolitan gun- 

^ A careful examination of the treaties hetwecii France and Spain, 
and France and the United States, and of all the diplomatic correspond- 
ence and congressional debates, with reference to the western limits of 
the " Louisiaiia Purcliase," leads us to the conclusion which Mr. (ireen- 
how had previously reached, and had expressed in his " History of Ore- 
gon and California." His book, be it remembered, was published under 
the authority of the United States Senate. Mr. Greenhow says : " How 
far Louisiana (!xtende 1 westward when it was ceded by France to Spain, 
history offers no means of determining^;. In the ab.sence of all light 
on the subject from liistory, we are forced to regard the boundaries 
indicated by nature, namely, the highlands separating the waters of the 
Mississippi from those Uowinginto the Pacific, as the true western boun- 
daries of the Louisiana ceded to the United States by France in 1^(13." 



1804 



Exploit of Lieutenant Decatur. 



199 



boats. Most of her guns were thrown overboard, and her 
anchors and foremast were cat away, but still she remained 
fast. Holes were then bored in her bottom and her pumps 
choked, after which, having stood the fire of the gunboats all 
day, her commander submitted to the disagreeable necessity 
of striking his flag. The Tripolitans, after great exertions, 
no American cruiser being there to molest them, succeeded in 
getting the Philadelphia off and towing her into the harbor 
(Oct. 31, 1803)." 

9. The Tripolitans soon began to fit out for sea their valu- 
able prize. A plan for her de- 
struction was therefore resolved 
upon, but more than ^ . . 
three months passed of Lieutenant 
before it could be put ^^'^^*^''' 
into execution. Lieutenant (af- 
terward Commodore) " Decatur 
undertook the task, and the cap- 
ture of a small Trij)olitan vessel 
bound to Constantinople with a 
present of female slaves for the 
sultan, gave him the first facil- 

DECATUR ^ty- ^^^^ captured vessel was 

taken into service, and named 
the Intrejiid. Manned by volunteers, the Intrepid, as even- 
ing came on, favored by a light breeze, stood directly into 
the harbor. About midnight she began to approach the 
Philadelphia, directly towards which she steered, all excejit 
two or three of her crew lying flat upon the deck. 

10. So far all had passed without exciting the slightest 
suspicion ; but just as the Intrepid touched the side of the 
Philadelphia, an alarm was raised by the Turks. The Amer- 
icans, however, boarded in an instant, and the frigate's 
guard, after a moment's resistance, were driven over her 
opposite side, a few being killed, but most of them jumping 
into the water. With equal promptitude, combustibles. 




200 



Jefferson^ s Administration. 



1804 



already prepared, were hurried on board, and in less than 
half an hour the frigate was in a blaze. The burning ship 
lighted up the whole harbor like day ; and as the heat increased, 
her guns, which Avere loaded and shotted, began to explode. 
But the Intrepid swept on unharmed till she reached the 
mouth of the harbor, where she found boats ready to aid in 
towing her otf (Feb. 1, 1804)." A treaty Avas soon afterward 
made with the bashaw. 

11. A political quarrel between the Tice-president, Burr, 

and Alexander Hamilton, that liad 

its roots in a long strife between 

T» .,. X. the two men, led to a 
Death of ' 

Hamilton in duel. They met, with 

a Duel. tlieir seconds, at a se- 
cluded spot on the west bank of 
the Hudson, o^iposite New York 
City. " The word was given. 
Burr raised his pistol, took aim, 
and fired. Hamilton sprang u])- 
on his toes with a convulsive move- 
ment, reeled a little, involuntarily 
discharged his pistol, and then fell Hamilton. 

forward headlong upon his face." 

12. " On the day of Hamilton's funeral, the wliole city of 
New York was in mourning. The procession which followed 
him to the grave comprised men of every degree, without dis- 
tinction of parties. The minute-guns from the batteries 
were answered by the French and British ships-of-war in the 
harbor. On the steps of Trinity Church, Gouverneur Morris, 
with the four sons of the deceased by his side, pronounced a 
solemn oration in memory of his slaughtered friend ; and 
when tliey liad laid him in the earth, and the parting volley 
had been lired over his remains, the vast crowd dispersed in 
silence, and each man carried to his home the impression of 
a profound grief (1801)." 

13. Burr, of course, lost all his political influence. Two 




1807 



Fulton' s First Steamboat. 



201 




AARON BTJBB. 



years after the duel, he ])ecamc engaged in organizing a secret 

expedition at the West, which was suspected of being of 

a treasonable character. „ . , 

Trial 
He was arrested and of Burr for 

tried, but though ac- ^"^'°''- 
quitted of tlie charge of treason, it 
was generally believed that he was 
guilty of an intention to dismember 
tlie Union Ijy separating the West- 
ern from the Atlantic States, and 
founding an independent empire 
beyond the Alleghany mountains, 
over which he might bear rule. 

14. In 1807, the little steamboat 

Clermont was constructed under the 

direction of Robert Fulton. John 

Fitch and James Rumsey, both Americans, had already made 

successful experiments in steamboat building, but 

this boat, the Clermont, was destined to be historic. ^"J^to^'s ^fst 

' ' . steamboat. 

Fulton, in giving an account of his labors, said : 

" When I was building my first steamboat at New York, the 
project was viewed by the pub- 
lic critics with indifference, or 
with contempt, as a visionary 
scheme. My friends, indeed, 
were civil, but they were shy. 
As I had occasion to pass daily 
to and from the building-yard 
while my boat was in progress, 
I have often loitered unknown 
near the idle groups of strang- 
ers, gathered in little circles, 
and heard various inquiries as 
to the object of this new vehi- 
cle. , The language was uniformly that of scorn, or sneer, or 
ridfcule. The loud laugh often rose at my expense. The dry 




ROBERT FULTON. 



202 



Jefferson'' s Administration. 



1807 



Jest, the wise calculation of losses anrl expenditures, and tlie 
dull repetition of tiie ' Fulton folly,' seemed to have no end. 
Never did a single encouraging remark, a bright hope, or a 
warm wish, cross my path. Silence itself was but politeness, 
veiling its doubts or hiding its rejjroaches. 

15. At length the day arrived when the experiment was 
to be put into operation. To me it was a most trying occa- 
sion. The moment came in which the word was to be sriven 



v^- .;%. 



"^^.f^^ 




FULTUN'S ilKST STEAMBOAT. 

for the vessel to move. My friends were in groups on the 
deck. Tliere was anxiety mixed with fear among them. 
They were silent, and sad, and weary. I read in their looks 
nothing but disaster, and almost repented of my efforts. The 
signal was given, and the boat moved a short distance, and 
then stopped. To the silence of the preceding moment now 
succeeded murmurs of discontent, and agitations, and whis- 
pers, and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated, ' I told 
you it would be so — it is a foolish scheme — I wish we were 
well out of it.' 

16, I elevated myself upon a platform and addressed the 
assembly. I stated that I knew what was the matter ; and 
if they would be quiet, and indulge me for a half-hour, I 



1807 British Aggressions. 203 

would either go on or abandon the voyage for that time. 
This short respite was conceded. I went below, and examined 
the machinery, and discovered that the cause was a slight 
maladjustment of some of the work. In a short period it 
was obviated. The boat was again put in motion. She con- 
tinued to move on, but all my friends were still incredulous. 
None seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own senses. " 

17. " She had the most terrific appearance, from other 
vessels which were navigating the river. The first steamboats 
used dry pine wood for fuel, which sends forth a column of 
ignited vapor many feet above the flue, and when- 

ever the fire is stirred a galaxy of sparks fly off, and Clermont was 
in the night have a very brilliant and beautiful ap- '^^S^^^^^- 
pearance. This light of the Clermont first attracted the at- 
tention of the crews of other vessels. Notwithstanding the 
wind and tide Avere adverse to its approach, they saw with 
astonishment that it was rapidly coming towards them ; and 
when it came so near that the noise of the machinery and 
paddles was heard, the crews (if what was said in the news- 
papers of the time be true) in some instances shrunk beneath 
their decks from the terrific sight, others deserting their ves- 
sels escaped to the shore, while others prostrated themselves 
and besought Providence to j^rotect them from the approaches 
of the liorri])le monster which was marching on the tides and 
lighting its path by the fires which it vomited." The trij), 
from the city of New York to Albany, was completed in 
thirty-six hours. " Even then it was doubted whether it could 
be made again, or, if it could, whether it would be of any 
great value." 

18. England and France were at war at this time ; and 
while they were making prizes of each other's vessels, the 
American ships were finding full employment in carrying 
merchandise to the ports of both nations. To 
completely destroy the commerce of France, the aeeressions 
British government declared the ports of Franco 

to be in a state of blockade. Napoleon Bonaparte, who was 



204 Jefferson's Administration. 1807 

at the head of the French government, dechired a blockade of 
the British islands. These decrees, in effect, closed Europe 
against American commerce. Our vessels were captured, and 
our merchants consequently suffered grievous losses. 

19. A still greater grievance of the Americans was the so- 
called " right of search," by which Great Britain claimed 
the right to search American vessels on the ocean, and take 
from them all sailors of English birth, for the purpose of im- 
pressing them — that is, compelling them to serve in the Brit- 
ish navy. Tiiis claim was based upon the doctrine that a 
person Ijorn on English soil is always an English subject. 
He may go to the country of another nation, he may reside 
there many years, — even to the end of his days, — still he is a 
British subject. The United States, on the other hand, have 
always held to the doctrine that men may give \\\^ the citizen- 
ship which they inherited, and transfer their allegiance to 
other countries. 

20. As these doctrines were in conflict, it followed that 
when the news reached the United States that British ships- 
of-war had stopped American merchantmen on the high seas 
and impressed their seamen, a war-spirit broke out. The cry 
of " Free Trade and Sailors' Eights" resounded in every 
American port. As fresh outrages were perpetrated,' this 
spirit grew stronger and more determined, and spread to every 
part of the country. " In passing from town to town, the 
traveler saw groups of angry men discussing and denouncing 
the tyranny of England." It was known that more than six 
thousand American sailors had been seized by British war- 
ships, and pressed into the hated service of a hated nation. 

' In tlic summer of 1807, an event occurred which greatly increased 
the popular excitement against England. The Britishfrigate TA'opard, 
cruising in American waters, demauded permission to search the Ameri- 
can frigate Chesapeake, theu off the coast of Virginia, alleging that there 
were British deserters on board. As this was refused, she fired into the 
Chesapeake, and the latter, being unpn'purcd for action, struck her col- 
ors, after having twenty-one of her crew killed or wounded. Four per- 
sons, asserted to be deserters, were then carried on board the Leopard, 
but three of them, as was afterwards proved, were native Americans. 



1808 The Embetrgo. 205 

21. Our government remonstrated, but in vain. It then 
undertook to retaliate by laying an embargo upon American 
vessels — that is, prohibiting them from sailing to foreign 
ports. The law also prohibited all foreign ships The 
from carrying cargoes from American ports. Embargo. 
This sudden susj)ension of commerce, while it inflicted dam- 
age on France and England, especially the latter, inflicted 
greater damage upon the United States, for "the embargo 
shut ourselves out from the trade of the whole world. It only 
cut off England from that of the United States. The loud 
outcries from the opponents of the measure, especially from 
New England," made the administration unpopular, the act 
was repealed, and a non-intercourse law, prohibiting all com- 
merce with France and England, substituted. 

Madison's A dministration. 

1. Jefferson served two terms. Towards the end of the 
second, in imitation of the example 
set by Washington, he declined to be 
a candidate again, and was suc- 
ceeded by James Madison, of The 4th 
Virginia, the candidate of ^^^sident. 
the Anti-Federalists, or, as they were 
then called, the Eepublicans. This was 
the same party, in most part, that had 
elected and supported Jefferson. The 
new president's administration began 
on the 4th of March, 1809. i 

2. As the British still continued their 

MADISON. ■ i. ^ ■ J {^ 

unjust clamis and measures. Congress 

' Before Madison became president, the Indians on the western fron- 
tiei', influenced by British emissaries, and led on by their great chief 
Tecumseh, began "to form a confederacy against the United States. To 
check their hostilities, General Harrison was sent to the West, and in the 
important battle of Tippecanoe in the western part of Indiana, while 
Tecumseh was ab.seut, defeated them with great loss (1811). 




206 



Madison'' s Administration. 



1812 



decltirod war against Great Britain in June, 1812. General 

War declared ^^"^^' ^^^^ governor of Michigan Territory, who 

-Invasion had served with credit in the war of the Eevohi- 

ana a. ^.-^^^ ^.^^^ ^^ ^-^^ ^j^^^ marching with a force of 

less than two thousand men from Ohio to Detroit. His 

object was to defend tlie 



DETROIT 

-AND 




northwestern frontier 
from the Indians, While 
on the march he received 
news of the declaration 
of war. Arriving at De- 
troit, which then con- 
tained ahout eight hun- 
dred inhabitants, he 
crossed the river and thus 
invaded Canada. After 
some operations of little 
importance, he recrossed 
the river and took post 
at Detroit. Here he was 
besieged by a large force 
of British and Indians, and, though his troops felt confident 
of victory in the expected battle, he ordered a white flag to 
be hoisted, and gave up the place without striking a single 
blow. ' 

3. During the first year of the war the Americans met with 

nothing but disaster in their operations on the land. On the 

ocean, however, several brilliant victories cheered them. Eng- 

Victories land, with her thousand ships, despised the en- 

ontiie ocean, g^^^y ^yj^Q came against her with less than twenty. 

At sea, England felt herself omnipotent, but it was there 

^ Two years after, Hull was tried by a court-martial, pronounced 

guilty of cowardice, and sentenced to be shot ; but, on account of his 
lievolutionary services, whicli were many and heroic, lie was pardoned. 
It is believed at the prestnit diiy by those who are well ac<iuiiinted with 
the facts in the case, that Hull did only his duty, painful as it was, in 
making the surrender, and that, consequently, the sentence was unjust. 



1812 Capture of the Guerriere. 207 

disaster overtook her. Five desperate encounters took place, 
five victories remained with the Americans, five English war 
ships were taken or destroyed.' England's sovereignty of the 
sea had received a rude shock. 

4. One of these encounters took place near the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, between the American frigate Constitution, 
familiarly known as " Old Ironsides," commanded by Captain 
Hull (nephew of the general who had surrendered „ . 
Detroit to the British), and the British frigate ofthe 
Guerriere (^dre-e- (ire'), Captain Dacres. "The Guerriere. 
English vessel was well known, for she had at one of her 
mast-heads a flag proudly flying with her name in large let- 
ters upon it. The Guerriere opened fire and kept it up stead- 
ily for nearly an hour, to which the Constitution replied with 
only an occasional gun. The Constitution then drew slowly 
ahead, and the moment her bows began to lap the quarters of 
the Guerriere, her forward guns opened, and, in a few minute 
after, the welcome orders were received to pour in broadside 
after broadside as rapidly as possible. When she was fairly 
abeam, the broadsides were fired with a rapidity and power 
that astonished the enemy. As the old ship forged slowly 
ahead with her greater way, she seemed to be moving in 
flame. The mizzen-mast of the enemy soon fell with a crash, 
while her hull wa; riddled with shot. 

5. As Hull passed his antagonist he wheeled short around 
her bows to 2)revent a raking fire, but in doing this he came 
dead into the wind, and his sails were taken aback. As the Con- 
stitution rolled away on the heavy swell, the foremast of the 
Guerriere fell back against the mainmast, carrying that down 
in its descent, and leaving the frigate a helpless v/reck. 
Dacres had fought his ship well, and, when every spar in her 
was down, gallantly nailed the Jack to the stump of the miz- 
zen-mast. But further resistance was imjDossible, and he 

' Decatur, commanding the frigate United States, captured the British 
frigate Macedonian ; and Bainbridge, commanding the Constitution, cap- 
tured the British friijate Java. 



208 Madison^ s Administration. 1812-3 

therefore struck her flag." The captured vessel had been so 
much injured it was found impossible to keep her afloat. She 
Avas consequently set on fire, and soon only a few floating 
planks were all tliat was left to tell where that proud vessel 
had sunk. " The first English frigate that ever struck its 
flag to an American ship-of-war, had gone down to the bot- 
tom of the ocean. The sea never rolled over a A^essel whose 
fate so startled the world. It disappeared forever, but it left 
its outline on the deep, never to be effaced till England 
and America shall be no more (Aug. 19, 1812)." 

6. Madison, though earnestly opjiosed by the Federalists, 
who condemned the war, was chosen for a second term ; and 
it was then resolved to prosecute hostilities with vigor. 

Don't give But while the gallantry of the American seamen 
up the ship. ^i^\\ continued to be the theme of admiration, 
they were not always successful ; and English sailors 
were burning with eagerness to wipe out the unlooked-for 
disgrace, as they regarded it, which had fallen upon their 
flag. They blockaded American ports, and, while doing so, 
watched for opportunities to retrieve the honor of the ser- 
vice. One was presented on the first of June, 1813. The 
frigate Chesapeake, Captain Lawrence, sailed out of the 
harbor of Boston, and was met by the British frigate Shan- 
non. 

7. " For a few minutes the cannonading was terrific, but 
some of the rigging of the Chesapeake being cut to pieces, one 
of the sails got loose and blew out, which brought tlie ship 
into the wind. Then, backing on her enemy, and the rigging 
and an anchor becoming entangled, she could not get off. 
This, of course, exposed her to a raking fire, wliich swept her 
decks." Lawrence fell, mortally wounded. Carried below, 
his last words were, " Don't give up the ship." All his 
superior officers were killed or wounded. Over decks cov- 
ered with the slain and slippery with Ijlood, the Englishmen 
sprang upon the yielding foe. The American flag was pulled 
down, and, for the first time since tlie declaration of war, 




1813 Perry's Victory. 209 

the British flag was hoisted on a vessel of the American 
nation. So, exultingly thought England, " the naval supe- 
riority of the English was restored." 

8. Lake Erie at that time was in the possession of a British 
fleet, but during the summer a competing fleet, commanded 

by Commodore Perry, was fitted out 
with great exertions. " Per- Perry's 
ry was then a mere youth, victory, 
of twenty- seven years of age, but ar- 
dent, chivalrous, and full of energy and 
resource. On the morning of the 10th 
of September it was announced that the 
British fleet was coming out of Maiden, 
and Perry, whose fleet was anchored in 
COMMODORE PERRY. Put-lu-Bay, a haven of one of the islands 
in the western part of the lake, immediately set sail to meet 
it. The American squadron consisted of three brigs — the 
Lawrence, Niagara, and Caledonia — a sloop, and five schoon- 
ers, carrying in all fifty-four guns. That of the British 
was composed of six vessels, mounting sixty-three guns. It 
was a beautiful morning, and the light breeze scarcely ruffled 
the surface of the water as the two squadrons, with all sails 
set, slowly approached each other. 

9. The shore was lined with spectators, gazing on the ex- 
citing spectacle, and watching with intense anxiety the 
movements of the American squadron. Not a cloud dimmed 
the clear blue sky, and the lake lay like a mirror, reflecting 
its beauty and its purity. Perry, in the Lawrence, led the 
line. Taking out the flag which had been previously pre- 
pared, and mounting a gun-slide, he called the crew about 
him and said : ' My brave lads, this flag contains the last 
words of Captain Lawrence. Shall I hoist it ?' ' Aye, aye, 
sir,' was the cheerful response. Up Avent the flag with a will, 
and as it swayed to the breeze it was greeted with loud cheers 
from the deck. As the rest of the squadron beheld the flag 
floating from the mainmast of their commander's vessel, and 



210 MadisorC s Administration. 1813 

saw that ' Don't give ii-p tlie ship !' was to be the signal for 
action, a long, loud cheer rolled down the line. 

10. A single gun, wliose shot went skipping past the Law- 
rence, first uttered its stern challenge, and in a iew minutes 
all the long guns of the enemy began to play on the American 
fleet. Being a mile and a half distant. Perry could not use 
his carronades, and he was exposed to this fire for half an 
hour before he could get within range. Steering straight for 
the Detroit, a vessel a fourth larger than his own, he gave or- 
ders to have the schooners close up within half cable's length. 
These orders were passed by trumpet from vessel to vessel, 
but before the Lawrence could get near enough to open with 
her carronades, the fire of three vessels was directed upon 
lier. Enveloped in flame and smoke. Perry strove desper- 
ately for two hours in this unequal contest. The balls 
crashed incessantly through the sides of the ship, until at 
length, with ' every brace and bow-line shot away,' she lay 
an unmanageable wreck on the water. But still through tlie 
smoke her colors were seen flying, and still gleamed forth in 
the sunlight that glorious motto, ' Do?i'f give up the ship !^ 

11. Looking through the smoke, Perry saw the Niagara, 
apparently uncrippled. Leaping into a boat with his young 
brother, ho said to his remaining officer, ' If a victory is to 
be gained, I will gain it,' and standing erect, told the sailors 
to give way with a will. The enemy observed the movement 
and immediately directed their fire upon the boat. Oars were 
splintered in the rowers' hands by musket balls, and the men 
themselves were covered Avith spray from the round shot and 
grape that smote the water on every side. Passing swiftly 
through the iron storm, Perry reached the Niagara in safety, 
and as the survivors of the Lawrence saw him climb up the 
vessel's side, they gave a hearty cheer. 

12. Finding the Niagara sound and whole. Perry backed his 
main-topsail, and flung out his signal for close action. From 
vessel to vessel the answering signal went up in the sunlight, 
and three cheers rang over the water. He then gave his sails to 



1813 HarrisorC s Victory. 211 

the wind and bore steadily down on the centre of the enemy's 
line. Eeserving his fire as he advanced, he passed along 
through the hostile fleet, within close pistol range, wrapt in 
flames as he swej)t on. Delivering his broadsides right and 
left, and rounding to as he passed the line, he laid his vessel 
close to two of the enemy's ships and poured in his rapid 
fire. The other vessels of his fleet having come up, the con- 
flict at once became general. 

13. An action so close and murderous could not last long, 
and it was soon aj)parent that victory inclined to the Ameri- 
cans, for while the enemy's fire sensibly slackened, the signal 
for close action was still flying from the Niagara ; and from 
every American vessel the answering signal floated proudly in 
the wind. In fifteen minutes from the time the first signal 
was made the battle was over. A white handkerchief, waved 
from the taffrail of the Qaeen Charlotte, announced the sur- 
render. The firing ceased, and the smoke slowly cleared away, 
revealing the two fleets commingled, shattered, and torn !" 

14. This great victory gave the Americans the possession 
of Michigan, as well as of Lake Erie. Perry's laconic ac- 
count of it is memorable. He wrote : '^ We have met the 
enemy and they are ours." ' He suddenly found Harrison's 
himself in the front rank of heroes. General victory. 
Harrison crossed the lake to Canada, and Avith swift and 
eager pursuit followed a large force of the enemy — British 
and Indians — overtaking them at the Thames river. The 
Americans charged, broke the lines of the British, and 
compelled them to surrender ; but the contest with the In- 
dians was obstinate. At length their chief, the celebrated 
Tecumseh,^ fell and they fled. The war on the western 
frontier was ended (Oct., 1813). 

* This dispatch ranks with the celebrated one, / cwne, I saw, I con- 
quered, sent by the great l{oman general, Caesar, after a great victory. 

^ Tecumseh had, several months before, visited the Creek Indians, at 
the South, and incited them to take up arms against the whites. Fifteen 
hundred of their warriors surprised Fort Mims, in Alabama, and mas- 
sacred nearly three hundred persons (August 181 3). General Jackson 
attacked them at To-ho-pe'-ka, completely routed them, and thus ended 
the war (March, 1814). 



212 



Madison^ s Administration. 



1814 



15. Two campaigns from New York against Canada had 
been j)ut into execution, but they ended in failure.' A third 
was phiced under the command of General Brown. The 
Invasion Americans crossed the Niagara river, captured 
of Canada, p^i.^ Erie without a struggle, and at Chippewa 
{chip'-pe-iuaw) gained a brilliant victory (July 5, 1814). 
About three weeks later, while advancing from Chippewa, 
they were attacked at Lundy's Lane. Lieutenant (after- 
ward General) Scott, who 



S cale 




led the advance, bravely 
contended against superior 
numbers until the arrival 
of the main body. It soon 
became evident that a bat- 
tery which the enemy held 
on a height, and which 
swept all parts of the field, 
must be captured, or the 
Americans be defeated. 
Brown, turning to Colonel 
Miller, asked him if he 
could take it. "I will try, 
sir," was the brief reply of 
the fearless soldier as he 
scanned the frowning hill. He did try, and, amid fearful 
havoc, was successful. Three times the enemy attempted to 
retake their lost battery, but they were reinilsed at every as- 
sault. Finally, at midnight, they withdrew ; and thus was 
ended the most obstinate battle of the war — one more death- 

' Toward the latter part of April, 1813, General Dearborn crossed 
Lake Ontario, and jjroceeded to attack York. The troops lauded, led by 
General Pike, and were carryiiin: evervthinsj l)i'fore them, when the ene- 
my's magazine exploded, mortally woundini^ Pike, and inakin<^ sad havoc 
among his men. After a momeut'.s panic they moved on, and were soon 
in possession of the town. " Pike was carried on board one of the ships, 
and the last act of his life was to make a sign that the British flag, which 
liad been Ijrought to him, should be placed under his head. America 
mourned the loss of a gallant ollicer, a pure patriot, and a noble man." 



1814 Attack on Baltimore. 213 

dealing, in proportion to the numbers engaged, than had ever 
been fought on the American continent (July 25). 

16. Another victory was in reserve for the Americans. A 
large British army from Canada marched against Plattsburg, 
and, at the same time, their fleet on Lake Champlain, sailed to 
attack the American fleet, under Commodore Mac- plattsburg 
Donough. While the enemy, from their batteries, and Lake 
commenced the land attack, their fleet engaged ^^^-P^-^- 
MacDonough's vessels, which were at anchor in the bay of 
Plattsburg. In a little more than two hours MacDonough 
gained a complete victory. The fire from the land batteries 
then slackened, and, at nightfall, the invading army made a 
rapid and silent retreat (Sept. 11, 1814). 

17. While these successes at the North were gladdening 
the hearts of the Americans, a British squadron entered 
Chesapeake bay, and landed five thousand men commanded 
by General Eoss. Meeting with very little opposi- Washington 
tion on their march, the troops entered the city of ^^ flames. 
Washington. " The night that followed was one of dis- 
may to the inhabitants. The streets were crowded with 
men, women, and children, horses, carriages, and carts loaded 
with household furniture — all hastening towards a wooden 
bridge which crosses the Potomac." In the capitol, chairs, 
desks, and books were piled together by the vandal troops of 
" his gracious majesty" King George the third, and the 
torch was applied to the heap. The flames, passing from 
room to room, soon wrapped the noble library, and, bursting 
from the windows, leaped to the roof, enveloping the edifice 
in a fire that illuminated the country for miles aroand. To 
the president's mansion and other buildings the torch was also 
applied, and indiscriminate pillage closed the scene (Aug. 24). 

18. In fear of an uj^rising of the people, Ross, on the fol- 
lowing day, made a hasty retreat to the ships. His next 
design was against Baltimore ; but on his march Attack 
thither, he was slain in a skirmish. His forces, °° Baltimore, 
checked for a short time by the militia, encamped near the de- 



214 



Madison^ s Administration. 



1814 



fenses of the city, prepared to co-operate with the fleet, which 
had ascended the Patapsco. Fort McHenry, about two miles 
from Baltimore, stood in the way of the fleet's advance. The 
vessels, forming in a semicircle, commenced to bombard the 
fort on the morning of September 13th, and continued their 
Are until near tlie following morning. No serious impression, 
however, was made by the incessant shower of rockets and 
shells ; and the British, hopeless of success, withdrew.^ 

19. Florida was then a Spanish possession, but the inhabit- 
ants, instead of being neutral, gave aid to the British by 
allowing them to fit out expeditions in 

New Orleans the port of Pensacola. Jack- 
saved, g^^jj^ ^}^g ijg^.Q pf ^l^g Creek war, 

remonstrating in vain, left Mobile, where 
the British had been repulsed from the 
fort at the entrance of the harbor, and 
boldly marched to Pensacola, and by seiz- 
ing it compelled the British to leave 
the town (1814). Soon after, learning 
that an invasion of Louisiana was threatened, he hastened 
to New Orleans to put that city in a state of defense. 

20. Sir Edward Pakenham, one of the great heroes of the 
British army, fresh from the victorious fields of Spain, com- 
manded the invading force. Jackson's line of defense ex- 
tended more than a mile. The Mississi])pi covered his right 
flank, an impassable jungle and swamp secured his left. 
Along his front ran a rampart of earth and a deep ditch. 
The British, six thousand strong, made an attack ; but volley 
after volley was poured upon them with such terrible effect 









%i 




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i) 


• , 






^ 


^\ 't* 


^v 


Y 


>v^. 


5jO 


lUtOA , 


'' Pen^cola 


y^ 


^M- 




^gj 


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f 




GULF OF MEXICO\ 



' It was during this bombardment tliat the incident occurred which 
inspired tlie composition of the " Star-spangled Banner." This national 
ode was written by Francis S. Key, an American detained on board one 
of the bombarding vessels. He had watched with painful anxiety dur- 
ing the day the national flag as it floated above the ramparts of the fort ; 
and during the night, the glare of the " bombs bursting in air," showed 
the stars and stripes still waving in triumph. The song expresses his 
exultation at beholding, " by the dawn's early light," that the flag still 
floated over the fort. 



1814 The Hartford Coniiention. 215 

that they were compelled to flee. Pakenham was slain, and 
two tlionsand of his men were killed, wounded, or made 
prisoners (Jan. 8, 1815).^ 

21. A large number of citizens of the United States, mostly 
residents of ISTew England, as previously stated, were opposed 
to the war, which they regarded as entirely unnecessary. 
" Many town-meetings were held in Massachu- „, 
setts, and, with great unanimity, addresses and me- Hartford 
morials were sent to the General Court of that Convention. 
State ; but as commissioners had been sent to Europe for 
the purpose of negotiating a treaty of peace, it was judged ad- 
visable not to have any action upon them till the result of the 
negotiations should be known. But during the summer of 1814 
no news of j^eace arrived ; and, the distresses of the country 
increasing, and the sea-coast remaining defenseless, the gover- 
nor summoned a special meeting of the legislature, in which 
thepetitionsof the towns were taken into consideration, and a 
resolve was passed appointing delegates to a convention to be 
held in Hartford, Connecticut. 

23. Tbe measure of resorting to a convention for the jDur- 
pose of arresting the evils of the administration roused the 
jealousy of the advocates of the war, and called forth the 
bitterest invectives. The convention, composed of delegates 
from all the New England States, was represented as a trea- 
sonable combination, originating in Boston, for the purpose 
of dissolving the Union. But citizens of Boston had no 
concern in originating the proposal for a convention. It was 
wholly the project of jDcople in old Hampshire county, Mas- 
sachusetts — as respectable and patriotic Republicans as ever 
trod the soil of a free country ; and all the stories which 
have been circulated respecting the evil designs of that con- 
vention, I know to be the foulest misrepresentations." A 

' Although, during 1814, the Americans were generally victorious on 
the ocean, yet the frigate Essex, Captain Porter, after a successful cruise 
rf more than a year, was attacked in the harbor of Valparaiso, on the 
Pacific coast of South America, by two British vessels and forced to 
surrender. The conflict was one of the most desperate of the war. 



216 Madisoii s Adniudstration. 1815 

report, recommending several amendments to tlie Constitu- 
tion, was adopted ; and, after three weeks of secret session, 
the convention adjourned. 

23. About a month after the defeat of the British at New 
Orleans — alas ! there was no Atlantic telegraph to sto}) the 

End of carnage of that day I — the joyful tidings reached 

the war. the United States that a treaty of peace had been 
signed at Ghent (geiit), on the 24th of December, of the pre- 
ceding year. " No victory ever so electrified the nation as the 
news of this peace. The ship that bore the glad intelligence 
reached New York on a Saturday evening, an hour after 
dark. In half an hour after, Broadway was one 
the news was living sea of shouting, rejoicing people. ' Peace ! 

received, ^qq^qq J peace !' Avas the deep, harmonious, uni- 
versal anthem. The whole spectacle was enlivened by a sud- 
den inspiration. Somebody came with a torch ; the bright 
idea passed into a thousand brains. In a few minutes thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of people were marching about 
with candles, lamps, and torches, making the jubilant street 
appear like a gay and gorgeous procession. The whole night 
Broadway sang its song of peace ; and the next day, Sun- 
day, all the churches sent up hymns of thanksgiving for the 
joyous tidings. " Expresses were sent off north and south 
with the news. On Monday morning, after the greatest efforts 
of speed, the rider dashed into the city of Boston, where the 
news was also received with clamorous rejoicings. " All the 
bells were at once set to ringing, and tlie schools received a 
holiday. At night the city flamed far and wide, telling tlie 
glorious tale even to Cape Cod." 

24-. "Just as the late war had lu'oken out, the Dey of 
Algiers, taking offense at not having received from America 
the precise articles in the Avay of tribute demanded, dismissed 
War our consul, declared war, and captured an Amer- 
with Algiers, j^..^^^^ vessel reducing her crew to slavery. Imme- 
diately after the ratification of the treaty with England, this 
declaration of war was reciprocated. Efforts were at once 



1815 Treaty lolth Algiers. 217 

made to fit out ships, new and old, and before many weeks 
Decatur sailed from New York with a fleet of ten vessels. 
Two days after passing Gibraltar, he fell in with and cap- 
tured an Algerian frigate, after a running fight of twenty-five 
minutes. A. day or two later, an Algerian brig was chased 
into shoal water and also captured (1815)." 

25. " On the 28th of June, the squadron rode at anchor 
in the bay of Algiers. It may be supposed that its formid- 
able appearance awakened both surprise and apprehension in 
the breast of the Dey. He saw its power, but he Treaty 
had not yet heard of its successes. Little did he with Algiers, 
imagine that his favorite admiral was killed and his best 
ship was a prize. The captain of the port and the Swedish 
consul came on board. To them Decatur delivered a letter 
from President Madison for the Dey, in which complaints 
were made of the faithless violations of the former treaty. 
The letter further expressed the hope of an amicable adjust- 
ment of difficulties without a continuance of the war. The 
captain of the port was also now first informed of the cap- 
tures, the account of which was confirmed to his satisfaction 
by the prisoners on board. 

26. The letter, the force which was on hand to sustain its 
doctrines, and the losses already exjjerienced and keenly felt, 
soon induced in the Dey a more humble and conciliatory 
spirit and demeanor than he was accustomed to manifest 
toward the rej)resentatives of foreign powers. He sent an 
invitation to the commissioners whom President Madison 
had appointed to negotiate a treaty, to visit him at his 
palace, and there to make arrangements for a settlement. 
His policy was to enter into a protracted course of negotia- 
tions, in order to gain time, during which he might take 
advantage of some more favorable change in his affairs. Such 
delay Decatur wisely determined to avoid. The commission- 
ers, after consultation, refused to go on shore, and declared 
that negotiations must be conducted on board Decatur's flag- 
ship. They also presented the draft of a treaty, to which 



218 Madison\s Administration. 1815 

they declared the Dey must assent. In fine, they would have 
his majesty understand that they were to dictate the terms 
of peace, and not he. This was high ground to take in treat- 
ing with these (the Barbary) states ; but it could be, and was 
maintained. 

27. The captain of the port now desired that at least hos- 
tilities should cease while negotiations were going on. To 
this request Decatur promptly replied : ' Not a mhiute : if 
your squadron appears in sight before the treaty is signed by 
the Dey and sent off with the prisoners, burs will capture it.' 
After further discussion and some slight alterations in the 
terms, the agents of the Dey carried the treaty on shore to 
obtain his consent and signature. In the mean time a corsair 
hove in sight, coming in toward the harbor close under the 
shore. True to his word, Decatur made signal for the squad- 
ron to chase. This movement of the fleet hastened matters 
on shore, for soon the boat, with a white flag, was seen com- 
ing off. It had been agreed that this should be the signal 
that the treaty was really signed. When, then, the boat 
was discovered making all haste toward Decatur's ship, 
that commander felt obliged to order the chase to be relin- 
quished. 

28. This treaty secured for the Americans advantages, in 
some points, over all other nations, and in all respects placed 
them on a footing with the most favored. Its principal 
articles provided that no more tribute should be paid, and 
that no Americans should evermore be enslaved." Then, 
l^roceoding to Tunis and Tripoli, Decatur obtained from both 
powers " indemnity for American vessels captured under the 
guns of their forts by British cruisers during the late war." 

20. Two States were admitted to the Union during the 

administration of Madison. Soon after the " Louisiana Prov- 

_, ince" had become the property of the United States, 

isth and 19th its southern portion was made the Territory of 

states. Orleans, and this portion, in 1812, was admitted 

as a State, with the name of Louisiana. The Northwest Ter- 



1817 



The Seminole War and Florida. 



219 



ritory, after Ohio had been taken out, became the Territory 
of Indiana, and the southeastern part of this was admitted 
as the State of Indiana, in 1816. 



Monroe's Administration. 

1. Madison, having served two terms and declining to be 
a candidate for a third, was succeeded by James Monroe, of 
Virginia, the nominee of the Republicans. " Shortly after 
his inauguration (March 4, 1817), Monroe, imi- The fifth 
tating the example of Washington, set out president, 
on a tour through the Eastern States. His declaration of 
principles in his inaugural ad- 
dress had been highly satisfac- 
tory to the Federalists, and at 
Boston, where the people were 
mostly of that party, he was re- 
ceived Avith most elaborate 
pomp. Embittered and hot- 
temjiered leaders of parties, who 
for the last seven years had hard- 
ly deigned to speak to each 
other, or even to walk on the 
same side of the street, met now 
with smiling faces." The " era 
of good feeling " had come. 

2. Monroe's first trouble was with the Seminoles, of Flori- 
da, who, joined by other Indians, were committing serious 
depredations on the settlements of Georgia. Jackson, who 
had been sent to repress these outrages, finding _,. 
that the Indians were encouraged by certain per- Seminole war 
sons in Florida, invaded that territory, although *° °^^ ^' 
at the time it belonged to Spain, with which country 
our government was at peace. He took the forts at St. 
Marks and Pensacola, and put to death two British traders, 
who, he believed, had supplied the Indians with arms and 




JAMES MONROE. 



220 Monroe's Administration. 1820 

incited them to hostilities. This bold measure at once threat- 
ened to involve the country in a war with Spain ; but the 
difficulties were finally settled by Spain agreeing to sell 
Florida to the United States for five millions of dollars. A 
treaty to that effect was signed by the Spanish minister at 
Washington in 1819. This was not, however, promptly rati- 
fied by the king of Spain, and, in consequence, Florida did 
not come into the possession of the United States before 1821. 

3. During Monroe's administration the Union was enlarged 
by the admission of five new States. Georgia had claimed all 
the domain west of her present limits as far as the Mississippi 

river, but ceding it to the general government, it 
' became the Mississippi Territory. The western 
portion of this was admitted into the Union as Mississippi 
(1817), and two years later the otlier part was admitted as 
Alabama (1819). The year l)efore this last event, the Terri- 
tory of Illinois, shorn of its northern jiortiun, joined the 
Union family as the State of Illinois (1818). Maine was at 
that time what it had been all along from the colonial period, a 
District of Massachusetts, but the inhabitants of the district 
desired to have it set apart as a separate and independent 
State. They adopted a constitution and then made ap2)lica- 
tion to Congress for admission into the Union. An obstacle, 
very much to their surprise, just then presented itself. This 
was slavery, but not slavery in Maine ; it Avas slavery in Mis- 
souri. The Missourians, who had many slaves, also asked for 
admission to the Union, but they wanted to have their peti- 
tion granted without any conditions being imposed against 
slavery. In Congress the two applications were joined in one 
bill ; but, after a long contest, were separated, and Maine be- 
came the twenty-third State of tlie Union (1820). 

4. As the people of the North were opposed to any increase 

of the number and })Ower of the slave States, their 

Missouri representatives in Congress endeavored to prevent 

Compromise. ^^^^ udmission of Missouri with its constitution 

permitting slavery. The discussion was long and violent ; 



1824 



Lafayette's Ylsit to America. 



221 



but, at length, the measure known as the " Missouri Com- 
promise" was adopted (1820). By this it was provided that 
shivery should be prohibited in all the territory, excejat Mis- 
souri, lying north of the parallel 30° 30', west of the Missis- 
si2:>pi. After the adoption of this compromise, Missouri was 
admitted (1821). i 

5. Monroe was president two terms. Towards the close of 
his second, an interesting event took place in the visit made 
by Lafayette to this country. Accompanied by his son, 

George Washington Lafayette's 
Lafayette, he arrived ^isit. 
at New York, where he met 
with a brilliant reception. 
Proceeding on a tour through 
the United States, he was every- 
where received as " The Nation's 
Guest." For more than a 
year, his Journey was a com- 
jilete ovation — a perpetual and 
splendid pageant. ' ' The peo ■ 
pie appeared delirious with joy 
and with anxiety to hail him, 
grasp him by the hand, and shower attentions and honors 
ui^on him. As he passed through the country, every city, 
village, and hamlet, poured out its inhabitants to meet him. 
Celebrations, processions, dinners, illuminations, bonfires, 
jDarties, balls, serenades, and rejoicings of every description, 
attended his way." 

6. " In June, 1825, he visited Boston, and on the 17th day 

' The Monroe Doctrine.— Au important event of Monroe's adminis- 
tration was tlie recotiuitiou of tlie South American republics, wliicli Iiad 
declared and maintained their independence for several years. This act 
of recognition had been urged in Congress with great ability by Henry 
Clay, of Kentucky. The next year (1823) President Monroe, in his an- 
nual message, declared that, "as a principle, the American continents, 
by the free and independent position which they have assumed and 
maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future 
colonization by any European power." This priucii^le is known as the 
' ' Monroe Doctrine. ' ' 




LAFAYETTE. 



222 Administration of John Quincy Adams. 1824 



of the month, it being the anniversary of the l)attle of Bunker 
Hill, he participated in the ceremony of laying the corner- 
stone of the monument in 
commemoration of that event, 
on the hill where the battle 
was fought, Daniel Webster 
being the orator of the occa- 
sion. The time for his de- 
parture drew near. " A new 
frigate, the Brandywine, 
named in honor of the gallant 
exploits of Lafayette at the 
battle of Brandywine, was 
provided by Congress to con- 
vey him to France." The 
farewell scene in the presi- 
dent's house, at Washington, 
President Adams l)eing then 
its occupant, was deeply af- 
fecting, and, amid the peals of artillery and the music of mil- 
itary bands, an immense procession accompanied the venera- 
ble chief to the banks of the Potomac (1825). 




BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 



Administration of John Quincy Adams. 

1. " The presidential campaign of 1824 was more spirited 

and exciting than any that had taken place since the first 

election of Jefferson. Strictly speaking, it could not be 

called a party contest, for Monroe's wise and pru- 

lOth national dent administration had obliterated party lines." 

election. ^|| ^^^^ candidates, four in num])er — John Quincy 
Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William IT. Craw- 
ford, — agreed substantially to the same political creed. The 
struggle Avas therefore a personal and sectional one, more than 
of a party nature. As no one of the candidates received a 
majority of the electoral votes, it became the duty of the 




1826 Death of Adams and Jefferson. 223 

House of Kepresentatives to make a choice, and that choice 

fell upon John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts. It thus 

happened that Mr. Adams took 

the executive chair, March 4th, 

1825, which, just twenty-eight 

years before, had been taken by 

his venerated father, and that 

father still lived, though his 

work was almost done, and it 

was not to- be his privilege long 

to see his son in the enjoyment 

of this, the highest office in the 

gift of his country. 

2. " The 4th of July, 1836, 

• n 1 1 1 1 J? JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

Will long be memorable for one 

of the most remarkable coincidences that has ever taken 
place in the history of nations. It was the fiftieth anniver- 
sary — the ' Jubilee ' — of American Independence. _ , 
Preparations had been made throughout the Union of Adams 
to celebrate the day with unusual pomp and dis- *° erson. 
play. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had both been in- 
vited to participate in the festivities of the occasion, at their 
several ^^laces of abode. But a higher summons awaited them ! 
they were bidden to a ' jubilee ' above, which shall have no 
end. On that half-century anniversary of American Inde- 
pendence, at nearly the same hour of the day, the spirits of 
Adams and Jefferson took their departure from earth. Amid 
the rejoicings of the people, the peals of artillery, the strains 
of music, the exultations of a great nation in the enjoyment 
of freedom, peace, and happiness, they were released from 
the toils of life, and allowed to enter on their rest. 

3. The one virtually the mover, the other the framer, 
of the immortal Declaration of Independence — the^ had 
together shared the dangers and the honors of the revolution, 
had served their country in various important and responsible 
capacities, had both received the highest honors in the gift of 



224 Administration of Jolin Quincy Adams. 



their fellow-citizens, had lived to sec the nation to which they 
assisted in giving birth, assume a proud stand among the 
nations of the earth, — her free institutions framed, consoli- 
dated, tried, and matured, her commerce hovering over all 
seas, respected abroad, united, prosperous, happy at home, — 
what more on earth could there be in store for them ? 
Together they had counselled, together they had dared the 
power of a proud and powerful government, together they 
had toiled to build up a great and prosperous people, together 
they rejoiced in the success with which a wise and good Prov- 
idence had crowned their labors, and together, on their coun- 
try's natal day, amid the loud-swelling acclamations of the 
' national jubilee,' their freed spirits soared to light and glory 
above." 

4. The subject of domestic manufactures engaged a large 
share of President Adams's attention. In 1828 a law was 
passed imposing heavy duties upon certain imported articles, 
the object being, not only to collect a revenue, but 
to encourage and protect the manufacture of such 
articles in this country. John C. Calhoun, of South Caro- 
lina, vice-president of the United States, had been the most 
active and the most zealous of the early advocates of this doc- 
trine ; while Daniel "Webster, of 
Massachusetts, was its leading 
opponent. 

5. Then the South began to 
manufacture the cotton it raised, 
instead of sending it to the 
North and thence having it 
transported to England in Yan- 
kee ships. A new vision unfold- 
ed itself to New England. If 
the South could prosper by run- 
ning factories, why could not the 
North ? Cotton-mills, accord- 
ingly, were planted in New England, and they flourished, for 



The tariff. 




DANIIOL WEIJSTER. 



1828 Internal Improvements. 225 

the dull, unintelligent slave labor of the South could not 
compete with the skilful, enterprising free labor of the North. 
What followed is apjiarent. In a little while the North became 
the advocate of a protective tariff ; the South, the opponent. 
So, too, legislation changed ; and we have had since the 
day when the first protective tariff was called into existence 
(1816) to the present time (1879), numerous tariffs, some hav- 
ing for their special object protection, others, revenue ; and 
still, with all our varied experience we have not reached a 
definite, permanent policy on this subject. 

6. Adams was the friend and promoter of internal improve- 
ments ; and during his administration more was done, aided 
by the general government, to promote these objects than in 
all the previous administrations. " More than internal 
one million of dollars were expended in enlarg- improvements, 
ing and maintaining the light-house establishment, half a 
million in completing the public buildings, two millions in 
erecting arsenals, barracks, and furnishing armories ; up- 
wards of three millions in fortifying the sea-coast ; and more 
than four millions in improving the internal communications 
between different parts of the country, and in procuring in- 
formation, by scientific surveys, concerning its capacity for 
further improvement." 

7. lu addition to all this, " more than five millions of dol- 
lars were appropriated to solace the declining years of the sur- 
viving soldiers of the Eevolution ; and a million and a half 
expended in extinguishing the Indian title to lands, and de- 
fraying the expense of the removal beyond the Mississippi of 
such tribes as were unqualified for a residence near civilized 
communities, and in promoting the civilization of those, 
who, relying on the faith of the United States, preferred to 
remain on the lands which were the abodes of their fathers. 
At the same time the interest on the public debt was punc- 
tually paid, and the debt itself was in a constant course of 
reduction." 

8. On the 4th of July, 1838, Adams, accompanied by an 



226 Jackson^ s Administration. 1828 

immense number of persons, — members of Congress, foreign 

ministers, and otliers — was present at the ceremony of 

*' broakins: s^round " on tlic Chesapeake and Oliio 
Canals 

canal. The year before, Edward Everett, in an 

address said : *' A system of internal improvement has been 

commenced, wliich will have the effect, when a little further 
developed, of crowding within a few years the progress of 
generations. Already Lake Champlain from the north, and 
Lake Erie from the west, have been connected with All)any. 
Delaware and Chesapeake bays have been united. A canal 
is nearly finished in the upper part of New Jersey, from the 
Delaware to the Hudson, by which coal is dispatched to our 
market. Another route is laid out, across the same State, to 
connect New York by a railroad with Philadelphia. A water 
communication has been opened, by canals, half-way from 
Philadelphia to Pittsburg. A canal of sixty miles in length 
is open from Cincinnati to Dayton, in the State of Ohio ; and 
another, of more than three hundred miles in extent, to con- 
nect Lake Erie with the Ohio, is two-thirds completed. " 

Jachsoii's Administration. 

1. The presidential contest of 1838 was more exciting than 
any that had preceded it. There 
were two parties contending for i^^m-^^'^ 

the prize. Adams was 
The '■ 

nth national the candidate of one, 
election. y^\^\^\^ ^r.^g ^ union of 

Republicans with most of the old 
Federalists. Jackson was the 
candidate of the other, which was 
made up in most part of Republi- 
cans. The members of this party 
took the name of Democrats, 
The contest was exceedingly bit- andrew jackson. 

ter and personal ; not only the public acts, but even the pri- 




1832 Bank of the United States. 227 

vate lives of the two candidates were closely scanned. Jack- 
son Avas successful by a very large majority, and Avas inaugu- 
rated on the 4th of March, 1829. Calhoun was a second time 
chosen vice-president. 

2. Adams, like his predecessors, had refused to make office- 
holding depend upon politics ; but Jackson believed in the 
doctrine, formulated at a later day, that " to the victor 
belongs the spoils." He, therefore, commenced the practice 
called " rotation in office," by which government Rotation 
officials are removed from their positions and the ^"^ office, 
political friends of the jiresident appointed to the offices. 
Jackson's course provoked protest and abuse, but it Avas firmly 
persisted in, and has been followed to a greater or less extent 
by all his successors. 

3. In his first annual message to Congress, Jackson took 
ground against the renewal of the charter of the United 
States Bank ; ' and when, notwithstanding his objections, a 
bill Avas passed to renew it, he vetoed the measure ^ , 
(1832). The next year he withdrew the govern- of the 
ment deposits from the bank, and caused them to °^ ^ * ®^' 
be placed in several of the State banks, which, because 
they were thus favored, were thence spoken of as " Pet 
Banks." This act caused great excitement; and a res- 
olution of the Senate declared the act unconstitutional, and 
censured the president. The State banks Avhich had recei\'ed 
the government funds, increased their loans to the merchants, 
and money became so abundant that the price of everything 
was advanced. This led to speculation, all hoping to become 
suddenly rich. Farms were laid out for cities, and cut up 
into building lots, which sold at fabulous jirices, although 
those who bought them were unable to build upon them, or 



' In 1791, during Washington's administration, tlie first bank of the 
United States Avas established by Congress, for a period of twenty years. 
Its cliarter Avas not renewed. In 1810, the second bank of the United 
States was establislied, to exist till the 3d of Marcli, 1836, when it ceased 
to act under the charter granted by Congress. 



228 



JacksorC s Administration. 



1832 



Nullification. 



even to pay for them. The ruinous consequences of this state 
of things were experienced not long afterward. 

4. The tariff law of 1828 grew every year more unsatisfac- 
tory to the cotton-growing States ; and, though an act was 
passed removing some of the duties on foreign goods, they 

were still discontented. South Carolina took the 
lead in opposition to the law, or, rather, was the 
only member of the Union that assumed State hostility to it. 
xi convention, elected by its voters, met and ordained that the 
tariff law was null and void, that no duties should be paid in 
the State, no appeal should be permitted to be made to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and that should the 
general government attempt to enforce the law by collecting 
the duties, the State of South Carolina would secede from 
the Union (1832). 

5, " The State resounded with the noise of warlike prepa- 
rations. Blue cockades, with a palmetto button in the cen- 
tre, appeared upon thousands of hats, bonnets, and bosoms. 
Medals were struck ere long, bearing this inscription : 
' John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confed- 
eracy. ' The legislature pro- 
ceeded to fill the vacancy creat- 
ed in the Senate of the United 
States by the election of Mr. 




Hayne to the governorship. 
John C. Calhoun, vice-president 
of the United States, was the 
person selected, and he accepted 
the seat. He resigned the vice- 
presidency, and began his jour- 
ney to Washington, leaving his 
State in the wildest ferment." 
6. Jackson acted with prompt- 
ness and firmness. He sent General Scott to Charleston, a 
naval force Avas anchored off the city, and all the military 
posts in South Carolina were occupied by United States 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 



18B6-7 



ArTcansas and MicMgan. 



229 



troops. Then Jackson issued his celebrated proclamation 
(December 11th, 1832), announcing his determination to en- 
force the law. " Argument, warning, and entreaty were 
blended in its composition. " " The Union," he said, " must 
and shall be preserved. " These prompt and decisive measures 
had the desired effect. The nullifiers, as they were called, were 
restrained ; and, not long afterward, a " compromise bill," 
providing for the gradual reduction of the duties, was offered 

by Henry Clay, accepted by Cal- 
houn and the other South Caro- 
lina leaders, and passed by Con- 
gress. Thus quiet was restored. 
7. The election campaign in 
1832 came on while the bank 
and nullification troubles were 
at their height. It jackson's 
was a decidedly ear- ^d election, 
nest one. The country was 
very much excited and party 
spirit ran high. Jackson, who 
was again the candidate of the 
Democrats, was lauded as "the hero of New Orleans," the 
" old Roman," and, in allusion to his toughness as a soldier, 
"Old Hickory." Hickory poles, these being hickory trees 
trimmed so as to leave no limbs except at the top, were 
raised at the great out-door meetings. Every city-ward, 
every town, village, and hamlet had its hickory jiole at the 
head-quarters of the party. On one occasion of a hickory- 
pole raising in New York city, there was a Democratic pro- 
cession, says a French traveler who described it, "nearly a 
mile long." Jackson was again successful. Martin Van 
Buren, of New York, was chosen vice-president. 

8. Two States were added to the Union while Jackson was 
president. The first, Arkansas, formed from the 
territory known as the " Louisiana Purchase," 
was admitted in 1836. The second, Michigan, formerly a 




HENRY CLAY. 



230 



Van BurerCs Administration. 



1836 



part of the Northwest Territory, was admitted in the early 
part of 1837, about a month before the expiration of Jack- 
son's term of office. The Union then consisted of twenty-six 

States. 



Van Buren's Admiiiistrafion. 

1. The presidential election in the fall of 183G, resulted in 
the success of Martin Van Buren, whom Jackson had favored. 
This was another triumph of the Democratic party, the i)arty 

The opposed to rechar- 
13th national tering the Bank of 
the United States 
and to a high tariff. The policy 
of Jackson's administration 
was thus continued. The can- 
didate of the other great politi- 
cal body, the Whig party, was 
General William Henry Harri- 
son, of Ohio, the '^ hero of Tip- 
pecanoe and the Thames." 
Colonel Eichard M. Johnson, 
was chosen vice-president. 
He, like Van Buren, was a Democrat.' 

2. The ])Oginning of Van Buren's administration was noted 
for the bursting forth of the great tinancial storm, the result 
of the wild speculations of the few preceding years. Mer- 

* In 1833 the northwest frontier suiTered from Indian liostihties. Tlie 
savages were subdued, and tluur irreat chief, Black Hawk, and other 
warriors, being made prisoners, were conducted tlirough some of tiie 
prhicipal cities of the Union to convince them of tlie folly of contcndhig 
against the whites. Towards the close of 183o, the Scminolcs of Florida 
renewed their hostilities, because an attempt was made to remove them 
to lands west of the Mississippi, according to a treaty which had been 
previously made with sohie of their chiefs. Their principal warrior, 
Osceola, and others, did not consider this treaty binding, and refused to 
obey it. Osceola was imprisoned, because of his threatening language, 
but, promising submission, was set free. In revenge, he attacked the 
whites, but was again made prisoner. The Indians were defeated by 
Colonel Taylor (afterward President), yet they continued hostile till 1842. 




MAKTIN VAN BLKEN. 



1840 Tlie Slavery Agitation. 231 

chants were unable to pay their debts, and numerous failures 
Avere the consequence. The banks, of which there xhe panic 
were about eight hundred in number, had three of 1837. 
times as much jiaper money in circulation as they had 
coin in their vaults. Tliey were therefore compelled to sus- 
pend the payment of their notes in specie, and gold and sil- 
ver disappeared, for those who had any hoarded it for safety. 
Even the government was embarrassed, for its money was 
locked up in the suspended banks. This led to a measure, 
recommended by the president, by which the keeping of the 
government money was intrusted to Assistant Treasurers, in 
certain designated places, called Sub-Treasuries. This is now 
the established policy of the country. 

3. In 1840, the number of slaves in the United States was 
2,487,455. All the Northern States had either abolished 
slavery or had made provision for its gradual abolishment. At 
the date mentioned, there were sixty-four slaves „, 
still in Pennsylvania, five in Rhode Island, seven- Slavery 
teen in Connecticut, and about five hundred in ^^^ ^ ^°^" 
New Jersey. The South, in the early colonial times, had been 
opposed to slavery, and, in the first years of our existence as a 
nation, our prominent men — Washington, Franklin, Jeffer- 
son, Madison, Jay, Hamilton, and many others — regarded 
slavery as a great evil. Various causes — the difference in cli- 
mate, and the invention of tlie cotton gin, by which slave labor 
was made more profitable in the South than the North, being 
the principal ones, — in the course of time effected a change of 
opinion ; and slavery was at length advocated in the South- 
ern States as right in itself and worthy of being extended. 

4r. It is thus seen that from the very foundation of the 
government there were many persons opposed to slavery. 
As early as 1775, an " Abolition Society" was formed in 
Pennsylvania, with Franklin for its president, having for its 
object the *' removal of slavery from the American people" 
and the " discouraging of all traffic in the persons of our fel- 
low-men." The formation of other "Abolition Societies" 



232 



Va?i Bureii' s Administration. 



1840 



folloAved. At a later period, too, tliere were puldislicd more 
than two thousand abolition journals, one of the first of these, 
" The Liberatoi'," having been started in Boston on the first 
day of 1831, by William Lloyd Garrison. The mayor of that 
city having been asked by a Southern niagistratc to stop the 
publication of Garrison's paper, replied that " it was not 
Avorth the trouble, for the office of the editor was an obscure 
hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, and his supporters 
a very few insignificant persons of all colors." 

5. The agitation against slavery during Van Buren's ad- 
ministration, was i:)rosecuted with great determination ; and 
this, carried on by means of lectures, newspapers, tracts, 
public meetings, and petitions to Congress, aroused a violent 
spirit of resistance. In Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and 
other Northern cities, anti-slavery meetings were invaded 
and broken up ; the offices of anti-slavery newspapers Avere 
mobbed, and, in some instances, personal violence was in- 
flicted — in one notal)le case, in Illinois, death — upon the 
abolitionists. Still the agitation went on. 

6. The first railway in America, built in 182G and knoAvn 
as the Quincy Railroad, was only two miles long. It was 

designed for 
carrying gran- 
ite from the 
fjuarries of 
Quincy, Mas- 
sachusetts, to 
tide water. 
The cars were 
d r a \v n by 
horses. The 
second rail- 
way was the 
M.\i\\c\\(^mawh) 
in all thirteen 




FIRST RAILROAD CAR FOR PASSENGERS (1830). 



Chunk, which, with its turnouts and branches 

miles long, was constructed for the transportation of coal from 



steam Namgation, 233 

the mines of tliat place to the Lehigh river in Pennsylvania 

(1827). " The Baltimore and Ohio was the first 

•1 • A • n^i. •! 1 Railroads, 

passenger railway m America, faiteen miles being 

opened in 1830, the cars being drawn by horses till the next 
year, when a locomotive was put on the track." During the 
same year (1830) a small locomotive, weighing not more than a 
ton, was built in Baltimore by Peter Cooper (afterward of New 
York). " It was the first locomotive for railroad purposes 
ever built in America. So great was the enterprise through- 
out the United States from 1832 to 1837 in the projection and 
construction of railroads, that at the end of that period the 
contemplated lines exceeded in number and aggregate length 
those of any other country." 

7. We have spoken of the Clermont, Fulton's first steam- 
boat (see p. 201). As many as six steamboats were after- 
ward built for Fulton. The first boat of the kind on the 
Mississippi, was the Orleans, in 1811. She went steam 
from Pittsburg to New Orleans in fourteen days, navigation.' 
Eight years later, the Savannah, an American steamer, crossed 
the Atlantic from Savannah, G-eorgia. In this vessel both sails 
and steam were used. The arrival of the first two steamers, — 
the Sirius and the Great Western, — at New York from Liver- 
pool, in 1838, caused a great sensation throughout the coun- 
try ; and when the Great Western took her departure from 
New York "a fleet of steamers, decorated with flags, filled 
with passengers, and each having a band of music on board, 
accompanied her down the bay. The wharves were densely 
crowded with spectators, and even the house-tops were cov- 
ered" with thousands of persons. Cheers went up from the 
excited people as a parting God-speed. 

Administrations of Harrison and Tyler. 

1. The depression in business affairs was attributed to the 
want of wisdom in Van Buren's administration, and, although 
he received the nomination of the Democratic party for a 



284 



Harrisoii s Adrnirdstration. 



1840 



second term, and was still pledged to tread in '' the footsteps 
^^^ of his illustrious predecessor," he found it impos- 
14tli national si 1)1 e to carry with him the pojjularity of "Old 
e ection. iJic]^ory," as Jackson was affectionately called. 
Besides, a great many persons were disposed to try " a change 
of policy," thinking that it could not be for the worse. 
Again the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison, who, 

like Jackson enjoyed a military 
fame. He had fought the In- 
dians ; and the battle of Tippe- 
canoe, though of small account 
compared with the battle of 
New Orleans, gave the Whigs 
a great amount of campaign 
ca2)ital. " Tippecanoe and 
Tyler too " became their rally- 
ing cry. 

2. The Whigs also derived 
great advantage in the contest 
from the fact that some 
" thoughtless Democrat " had tauntingly alluded to their 
candidate as having dwelt in a " log cabin" and used " hard 
cider" as a beverage. The expressions, the " log-cabin candi- 
date," and the " hard-cider campaign," at once came into 
popular use, and with such furor, that all the arts of the " lit- 
tle magician," as Van Buren was called by his political oppo- 
nents, were unable to counteract its effects. Log cabins, with 
the "latch string hanging out," and decorated with coon 
skins, were drawn on wagons in political processions, and 
were also made to give effect to the mass meetings, which 
were often composed of " acres of men." The result was the 
election of Harrison, and, with it, the elevation of John 
Tyler, of Virginia, to the office of vice-president. 

3. Before he came to Washington, Harrison luid lived in a 
plain and simple way, taking his breakfast at seven or eight, 
his dinner at noon, and retiring early. Hi the White House, 




WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



1841 



Death of Harrison. 



235 



he took his breakfast at nine, dined at six, retired after mid- 
night, and rose at five. He was then sixty-nine years of age. 
" Can it be a cause of wonder that his system gave way, re- 
fusing to bear this heavy and unaccustomed tax?" He was 
taken sick, and, just one month after his inaugura- ^^^^^ 
tion, he died (April 4th, 1841). " His death was of the 
an astounding shock to the country. He was the 
first president who had died in office. All the public build- 
ings, most of the private dwellings, and even the lowliest 
tenements, in Washington, were draped in black ; and busi- 
ness was suspended." 

4. John Tyler, the vice-president, being called to Washing- 
ton, took the oath of office and assumed the title of president ; 
but the course he pursued sadly disappointed the Whigs, by 

whom he had been ^ .^^ 
elected. They had becomes 
expected to establish 
a National Bank " for the relief 
of the country," but he vetoed 
two bank bills passed by Con- 
gress, though one of them had 
been previously approved by 
him. All the members of his 
Cabinet^except Daniel Webster, 
the Secretary of State — resigned, 
and he was denounced by his 
former political friends. Web- 
ster remained at his post long enough to make what is com- 
monly known as the Webster-Ashburton treaty, by which 
long-standing differences between England and the United 
States respecting the North-eastern boundary were settled, 
and provision was made for determining the entire northern 
boundary line to the Eocky mountains.^ 

* In 1842 serious difficulties occurred in Rhode Island, growing out of 
a movement to substitute a constitution extending the right of suffrage, 
in place of the charter granted by Charles II., in 1663, and which had 




JOHN TYLER. 



236 Tylefs Administration. 1845 

5. A proposition for the admission of Texas into the Union 
caused an excited discussion tliroughout the country during 
the closing months of Tyler's administration. Texas had been 

Annexation ^ province of Mexico, but the inhabitants had re- 
of Texas, volted, achieved their independence, and set up 
a republican government of their own. Hence, Texas was 
called, at this time, " The Lone Star State," one star only 
being on her flag. The annexation of Texas was favored by 
the South, because slavery existed there, but the measure was 
opposed by a large party in the North, who were greatly 
averse to any increase of the slave power in the United States. 
Many, too, foresaw that the annexation of Texas would pro- 
duce a war with Mexico. The discussion in Congress was 
finally ended by the passage of a resolution in favor of the 
annexation, and to this Tyler gave his approval three days 
before he Avent out of office (1845). 

6. The demand for the rapid communication of intelli- 
gence was by no means supplied by the locomotive and rail- 
road. To Professor Morse is due high honor for the man- 
ner in which he availed 

The . n ->■ 

magnetic himself of scientific dis- 
teiegraph. g^ygj-ipg^ previously made 

by others in the department of elec- 
tro-magnetism, for many discover- 
ies of his own, and especially for 
his perseverance in bringing his 
system into use for the benefit of 
mankind. His telegraph was first 
so made available in 1837. " He 
had completed his telegraph line 
from AVashington to Baltimore just morse. 

previous to the sitting of the Democratic convention for the 

been the " fundamental law of the land" the greater part of two centu- 
ries. The " suffrage party" attenijited to effect the change without re- 
gard to existing laws, even resorting to force ; but the legitimate power 
prevailed. A constitution, the one under which the State is now gov- 
erned, was soon after adopted. 




1837 The Electro- Telegraph. 237 

nomination of a presidential candidate, and was ready to re- 
port its proceedings every fifteen minutes. The terminus of 
the line in Washington was in a room adjoining the Supreme 
Court room, under the Senate -chamber, now the Supreme 
Court room. 

7. Here he received and communicated dispatches during 
the sitting of the convention, and read them to the large 
crowd assembled around the window, manifesting the most 
intense interest in the proceedings at Baltimore, as they were 
from time to time received and read aloud. It was a novelty. 
Every few minutes it would be reported that Mr. So-and-so 
had made such a motion, and in a minute or two, ' the mo- 
tion has failed,' or, 'has carried,' as the case might be. 
Again, ' A ballot is being taken for president.' 'Mr. Polk 
has been proposed, and a vote is being taken ; such a State 
has voted for Mr. Polk, — such and sucli and such States have 
voted for him : he has received two-thirds, and is nominated. ' 
This talking with Baltimore was something so novel, so 
strange, so extraordinary, and upon a matter of such intense 
interest, that we could hardly realize the fact. It seemed 
like enchantment, or a delusion, or a dream." 

Polk's Administration. 

1. The presidential contest in the fall of 1844 turned largely 
upon the question of the annexation of Texas. The candi- 
date of those favoring the measure — the Democratic party, — 
was James K. Polk, of Tennessee. Henry Clay, ^, 
"The Mill-Boy "of the Slashes," ^ who was and 1 5th national 
had been all his life, the great champion of ® ^° ^°^' 
"The American System," that is protection to Ameri- 
can labor and American manufactures, was again the candi- 
date of the Whigs, but was again defeated, for ' ' he was not 

' This term was applied to Clay by his political friends, in allusion to 
the fact that, when a boy, he was often sent on errands to a place near 
his home called " the Slashes," where there was a mill. 



238 



Polk'' s Administratioii. 



1845-6 



pro-slavery enough for the South, nor anti-shivery enough 

for the North." The Aboli- 
tionists voted for James G. Bir- 
ney, who, though he did not 
get a single electoral vote, re- 
ceived sixty-five thousand of the 
people's ballots. Polk's inaugu- 
ration took place on the ith of 
March, 1845. 

2. Texas, having assented to 
the annexation act in the form 
in which it had passed Congress, 
tlie "Lone Star State" was 
merged in the constellation of 

the Union (1845). As anticipated by many, this led to a 
•^ar "^^^1' with Mexico, for that country still claimed 

with Mexico. Texas as a part of her own territory. Hostilities 

commenced in 1846, near the Eio Grande {re'-o grahn'-da), to 

which river General Taylor had been sent to protect the new 

State from a threatened 

invasion by the Mexicans.^ 




JAMES KNOX POLK. 



3. The Mexicans made 
an attack upon a small 
party of American dra- 
goons, and this led to two 
engagements, one at Palo 
Alto {pali'-lo alil'-to) and 
tlie other at Resaca de la 
Taylor's Palma [ra-snh' - 
campaign. ^.^/^ ila JaJl pah l- 

mah), in both of which the 
Mexicans were defeated 




"'•'"a vista 

TjVYLOR'S 

CAMPAIGN 

Scale 

20 V> -60 80 Too 




' The United States, by the annexation of Texas, chiimed the Rio 
Grande as tlieir bonndary, wliilo Mexico alletred that the western Hmits 
of th(; province never extended beyond the Nueces river. The crossing 
of the hitter river into the disputed territory by Taylor, was, therefore, 
considered by the IVIexicans as the commencement of active war, and 
tliey consequently made tlie attack. 



1846-7 Conquest of New Mexico and Calif ornia. 239 



and 
California. 



with severe loss (May, 1846). In a few days Taylor took the 
town of Matamoras, and then marching to the fortified city of 
Monterey {mon-ta-ra'), after a series of assaults compelled it to 
capitulate (Sept. 24). These victories were gained with a force 
far inferior to that of the Mexicans. Taylor's last engage- 
ment in Mexico was the battle of Buena Vista {hiua'-nah vess'- 
tah). At this place, his small force, of less than five thousand 
troops, was attacked by Santa Anna with an army of nearly 
four times that number of men ; ' but after a determined 
contest which lasted from morning till night, the Mexicans 
were driven in disorder from the field (Feb. 23, 1847). 

4. In the mean time. General Kearny had marched with a 
small force into New Mexico and taken possession of that prov- 
ince ; while Captain Fremont, " the 

Pathfinder of the Eocky 

, • , , 1 11 Conquest of 

mountains, wiio haq New Mexico 

(before the breaking out 
of the war) been sent to 
make western explorations, entered 
California ; and, the settlers flocking 
to his standard, he defeated the 
Mexicans in several skirmishes. The 
conquest of California was com- 
pleted by means of the American 
fleet under Commodores Slote and 
Stockton, assisted by Fremont and 
Kearny (1847). 

5. It having been decided by the authorities in Washing- 
ton, that, in order " to conquer a peace," the Mexican capi- 
tal must be captured, this task was assigned to General Scott, 

' Santa Anna had l)een made Dictator, and was the commander-in- 
chief of the Mexican army. He had been so sure of victory, that he sent 
his cavalry to intercept the retreat of tlie Americans. The American 
general, summoned to surrender, replied, " General Taylor never sur- 
renders." In the midst of this dreadful battle he remained perfectly 
cool, calling out to his artillery officer at one time, " A little more grape, 
Captain Bragg !" The battle of Buena Vista entirely broke up Santa 
Anna's spendid army of twenty thousand men. 




JOHN C. FREMONT. 



240 



PoWs Administration. 



1847 



the hero of Lundy's Lane. Landing his army near the citv 

Scott's of Vera Cruz, wliich was defended l)y a powerful 

campaign, fortress that had frowned upon tlie waters of the 

gulf more than a hundred 



years, he opened a tremen- 
dous fire upon the city and 
fortress, continuing the bom- 
bardment five days, until both 
were compelled to surrender 
(March, 1847). The march 
to the enemy's capital was 
not an easy one. The Mexi- 
can army was large and com- 
manded by the wily Santa 
Anna. The Americans were 
mainly volunteers who had 
never seen war before. At 
(s«r'-ro) Gordo, the enemy. 




GENEKAL SCOTT. 



the mountain pass of Cerro 
twelve thousand in number. 



waited behind strong fortifications. The Americans cut a way 
round the mountains and assailed the fortifications. The 
Mexicans fled in confusion, and with so much hurry that 
Santa Anna, to escape capture, was obliged to leave behind 
his wooden leg (April). Other successes followed, and the 
invading army entered and occupied the ancient and popu- 
lous city of Puebla [poo -a! -blah). Here, Scott, having sent 
home a large number of his troops, because their term of 
enlistment had expired, waited there months for reinforce- 
ments. On their arrival he resumed his march. 

6. Finding that the direct route to the Mexican capital 
was strongly fortified, Scott turned southward, and encam})ed 
al)out ten miles from the city. The approaches to the 
capital were guarded by powerful liatteries ; but these were all 
taken after severe conflicts, in which the American troops 
showed the greatest determination aiul daring. The last of 
these places was carried by assault on the 13th of Septem- 
ber ; and Santa Anna and his army, being unable to make 



1847 



American Conqicest of Mexico. 



241 



SCOTT'S 
CAMPAIGN 



any further resistance, fled from the city during the succeed- 
ing night. The next morning, General Scott, at the head of 
the American army, made a triumphal entry into the city. 
At first the victorious 
troops were attacked from 
the house-tops by the 
Mexican populace, but 
this opposition was soon 
quieted. 

7. "' Mexico, the capi- 
tal of the ancient Aztecs, 
the seat of the Spanish- 
American empire in 
America — had passed 
from Aztec and from 
Spaniard to the Anglo- 
American — the Northman 
of the Goths, the Saxon 
of Germany, the English- 
man of America — the same bold, hardy, energetic, ingenious, 

invincible, ambitious, and adventurous being, , 

' . . °' American 

whose genius the forms of civilization cannot con- concLuestof 
fine, and to whose dominion continents are inade- ^^ico. 
quate. In what hour of time, or limit of space, shall this man 
of the moderns — this conqueror over land and seas, nations and 
governments — find rest, in the completion of his mighty prog- 
ress ? Commencing his march in the cold regions of Scan- 
dinavia, no ice chilled his blood — no wilderness delayed his 
steps — no labor wearied his industry — no armies arrested his 
march — no empire subdued his power. Over armies and over 
empires — over lands and over seas — in heat, and cold, and 
wilderness, and flood — amidst the desolations of death and 
the decavs of disease — this Northman has moved on in might 
and majesty, steady as the footsteps of Time, and fixed as the 
decrees of Fate ! 

8. How singular — how romantically strange is this — his 




242 Polk's Administration. 1848 

wild adventure and marvellous conquest in the valley of val- 
leys ! How came the Northman and the Moorish Celt here 
to meet, and here to battle, in this North- American valley? 
Look at it ! Inquire ! Ask yourself how they came here ! 
Are they the citizens, by nature, of this continent ? Are they 
the aborigines of these Avild and wonderful forests ? Never ! 
How came they, then, to be contending for the lands and 
groves of those whose children they are not ? In the begin- 
ning of the sixteenth century, Cortez landed on the coast of 
Mexico, and, at the head of Spanish troops, marched on to 
the conquest of Mexico, over whose effeminate inhabitants the 
Spaniard has, for three hundred years, held undivided do- 
minion. Not many years after, the Anglo-Saxon landed on 
the coasts of tlie northern Atlantic. He, too, marched on to 
conquest. The native citizens of the forest disappeared 
before him. Forests, mountains, and Indians, were ineffec- 
tual to oppose him. From the banks of the St. Lawrence to 
the Sabine of Texas, he is a conqueror over nature. And now, 
this Spaniard and this Northman meet, in battle panoply, in 
this valley of volcanoes, by the ancient graves of unknown 
nations, on the lava-covered soil where nature once poured 
forth her awe-inspiring flames. Three centuries since, these 
warrior-nations had left their homes beyond the Avide Atlan- 
tic. Two thousand miles from each other, they had planted 
the seats of their empire ^and now, as if time, in the moral 
Avorld, had completed another of its grand revolutions, they 
have met in mortal conflict." 

9. The capture of the city of Mexico by the American army 

virtually ended the Avar. A treaty of peace was signed by 

wliicli Mexico agreed to the Eio Grande as a boundary 

Treaty betAveen the two republics, and surrendered to 

of peace, the United States a vast territory between Texas 
and the Pacific ocean, including all the present State of 
California. On the part of the United States it was agreed 
that the sum of fifteen millions of dollars should be paid for 
the territory thus acquired, and that debts due from Mexi- 



% 



1848 Discovery of Gold in California. 243 

CO to American citizens, to the amount of three millions of 
dollars, should be assumed.^ Five years later, the United 
States, desiring a more southern boundary for a portion of 
their new territory, secured what is known as the " Gladsden 
Purchase," by paying the additional sum of ten millions of 
dollars. 

10. Peace was no sooner concluded than " it was discov- 
ered that the soil of California was richly endowed with gold. ^ 
On one of the tributaries of the Sacramento river an old set- 
tler was peacefully digging a trench, — caring little, _. 
it may be sup]30sed, about the change in citizen- of gold in 
ship which he had undergone, nor dreaming that ^ ^ orma- 
the next stroke of his spade was to influence the history 
not merely of California but of the world. Among the 
sand which he lifted were certain shining particles. His 
wondering eye considered them with attention. They were 

' The treaty was made by commissioners wlio met at Guadalupe 
Hidalgo, a small town about four miles from the city of Mexico ; but 
the boundary between the two countries soon became a subject of dis- 
pute, which was not settled till 1853, when the United States purchased 
the Mesilla Valley, or, as it was called, the Oadsden Purchase, General 
Gadsden having been the agent employed by the United States in trans- 
acting the affair. The map on the opposite page shows the extent, not 
only of the territory acquired from Mexico, but of the territory possessed 
by the United States at the close of the Revolutionary war, as well as 
of all the tracts since acquired. So much of it as relates to Louisi- 
ana and Oregon is based upon the conclusions stated in Greenhow's 
" History of Oregon and California," an official work published under 
the direction of the United States Senate. The map inserted in Vol. 1 
of tlie Ninth Census Report, is not in accord with Greenhow's con- 
clusions, as it extends Louisiana to the Pacific ocean. 

^ Before 1779, eight estal)lishments, missionary and military, were 
formed by the Spaniards on tlie Pacific coast of North America, the 
most southern being San Diego, the most northern, San Francisco ; and 
during the five years preceding that date, three exploring voyages were 
made by order of the Spanish Government, in which the coast was ex- 
amined as far north as the sixtieth parallel. {See page 37, note.) _ By the 
year 1800, as many as sixteen Spanish missions had been establislied in 
various parts of Upper California. Here the Indians were gathered, and 
the Catholic missionaries taught them the arts of civilized life, and im- 
parted to them the truths of Christianity. After Mexico had become in- 
dependent, the mission lands, comprising several million acres, were 
occupied by the Mexican governrneut, and the missions were gradually 
abandoned. 



244 Taylofs Administration. 1849 

gold ! Gold was everywhere — in the soil, in the river-sand, 
in the mountain-rock ; gold in dust, gold in pellets, gold in 
lumps ! It was the land of old fairy tale, where wealth could 
be had by him who chose to stoop down and gather ! Fast as 
the mails could carry it the bewildering news thrilled the 
heart of America. 

11. The journey to the land of promise Avas full of toil and 
danger. There were over two thousand miles of unexplored 
wilderness to traverse. There were mountain ranges to sur- 
mount, lofty and rugged as the Alps themselves. There Avere 
great desolate plains, unwatered and Avithout vegetation, In- 
dians, whose dispositions there Avas reason to question, 
Ijeset the path. But danger Avas unconsidered. That season 
thirty thousand Americans crossed the plains, climbed the 
mountains, forded the streams, bore Avithout shrinking all that 
Avant, exposure, and fatigue could inflict. Cholera broke out 
among them, and four thousand left their bones in the wil- 
derness. The rest plodded on undismayed. Fifty thousand 
came by sea. From all countries they came — from quiet 
English villages, from the crowded cities of China. Before 
the year Avas out California had gained an addition of eighty 
thousand to her population." 

12. Florida became a State the day before the last of 
Tyler's term of office (1845). At a later jieriod of the year, 
during Polk's administration, Texas became a State, as pre- 
viously stated. loAva, the tAventy-ninth State, Avas admitted 

in 1846. It originally Avas a part of the " Loui- 
New States. . r, ^ ,, rrn j • • +• w 

siana Purchase. The admission oi Wisconsin 

took place in 1848, from Avhat, in part, Avas soon after the 

Revolution, the NortliAvest Territory. 

Taylor^ s A dm inistration. 

1. As slavery in Mexico had been abolished more than 
tAventy years, the territory ceded by her to the United States 
was "free soil." In anticipation of this acquisition, Mr. 



1849 



The Wilmot Promso. 



245 




ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, acting for himself and other mem- 
bers of Congress from the free States, had offered _, 
an addition to the Mexican treaty, which after- I6th national 
ward became known as the "Wilmot Proviso," ® ^'^ ^°°- 

and which may be considered as 
tlie foundation stone of the Free 
Soil Party. The object of the 
proviso was to preserve for ever 
as " free soil" the territory to be 
acquired from Mexico. It, how- 
ever, did not pass both Houses of 
Congress ; but it greatly helped 
to bring into existence the new 
political party, and consequently 
three parties contended for the 
presidency in the fall of 1848. 
2. The candidate of the Demo- 
crats was General Lewis Cass, of Michigan ; of the Whigs, Gen- 
eral Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana ; and of the Free Soilers, 
whose party cry was " Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and 
Free Men," was ex-president Van Buren, of New York. Gen- 
eral Taylor started in the canvass with a decided advantage over 
his competitors. In the Mexican war he had won great laurels 
as a soldier ; and by his simplicity, directness, and indomitable 
daring in that contest had acquired the popular favor. His 
soldiers used to call him "Old Rough and Ready." His 
laconic expressions at Buena Vista — " General Taylor never 
surrenders," and "A little more grape. Captain Bragg" — 
w^ere often quoted during the presidential campaign, which 
resulted in his election. He was inaugurated on the 5th of 
March, 1849, the 4th being Sunday. 

3. It was during the early excitement of the " gold fever" 
that President Polk's term of office expired and Taylor's 
began. " Tlie 'fever ' was raging like an epidemic in every 
direction. High and low, rich and poor took it. From the 
fall of 1849 to the fall of 1850 was the tent era of California, 



2'40 Taylof s Administration. 1849-50 

the strange flush times of tlie young State. Property was 

. . changing hands, fortunes changing favorites, with 

life in astonishing rapidity. The poor man of yesterday 

California. ^^^^ ^j^^ ^.j^.j^ j^^.^^^^ ^^ to-day. The servant, running 

away from his master, tarried a month or two in the mines, 
and returned with gold enough to buy his master out. The 
average Avages made by miners in 1849 were, perhaps, twenty 
or thirty doHars a day ; yet in rich diggings an average of 
from three hundred to five hundred dollars a week was not 
uncommon for weeks together. 

4. The abundance of gold in the hands of people not used 
to it made them lavish. There was very little sitting down 
and calculating how to economize ; and there was no ' Poor 
Eichard ' pleading frugality and pointing out the penury that 
must follow thriftlessness. If there was any shrewd Yankee 
still following the precepts of his early education, and in an 
open-handed generation trying to remember that it is not 
what a num makes, but what he saves, that determines him 
rich or poor, his daily memorandum of expenses must have 
seemed very shocking. If he took breakfast at a restaurant in 
San Francisco, he had a dollar to pay for a beef steak and a 
cup of coffee. For fresh eggs he must pay from seventy-five 
cents to a dollar each. His dinner would cost him from a 
dollar and a half to five dollars, according to his appetite. 
Washing was eight dollars for a dozen pieces : it even hap- 
pened, they say, that some sent their dirty clothes to China 
to be washed. 

5. On landing at San Francisco, which early became the 
principal port of debarkation, or on arriving over the moun- 
tains, almost all dashed first into the mines. Placer mining 
could be learned in a day : any one Avho could shovel dirt, 
stand up to his knees in running water, and shake a pan, 
knew the art. . . . The currency was gold-dust, that is, 
small scales, globules, or nuggets of gold. At first they 
rudely measured it ; then as rudely weighed it — a silver dol- 
lar's weight, the weight of a jackknifc, or the weight of an 
ounce avoirdupois. Then they began to smelt the dust into 



The Compromise of 1850. 



247 



bars, ingots, or slugs, stamping the initials of the assayer to 
give credit to its designated weight where scales were not ac- 
cessible. Not till 1854, when the United States gave them a 
Branch Mint at San Francisco, was the currency regulated 
with any satisfaction." 

6. In September, 1849, there was a sufficient number of 
settlers in California to form a State; and "the youthful 
queen of the Pacific, in her robes of freedom inlaid with 
gold," made application to Congress for admission _. 
to the Union, As the constitution which Call- agitation 
fornia had adopted excluded slavery from her ter- ^^^^^^d. 
ritory, another violent agitation of the "slave question" fol- 
lowed, " Calhoun, the great leader and champion of the cavise 
of slavery," and the other friends of the slave power, oppos- 
ing the admission of California as a free State. Before the 
question was decided, Taylor died (July 9th, 1850), and was 
" quietly succeeded without show or parade" by the vice- 
president, Millard Fillmore, of New York. 

Fillmore's A dministration. 

1. Other subjects, besides the admission of California, 
but all growing out of the slavery question, had been 
introduced into Congress at this time ; and so violent was 

the controversy be- «,, 
tween the opj)Osing Compromise 
parties that the safe- °^^®^°- 
ty of the Union was menaced. 
The great orator and statesman, 
Henry Clay, by his fervid elo- 
quence, did much to allay this 
strife, and finally a compromise 
was effected by which California 
was admitted as a free State 
(1850). At the same time. New 
Mexico and Utah were organized 
as territories ; the slave trade 
was abolished in the District of Columbia ; and the " Fiigi- 




MILLARD FILLMORE. 



248 Fillmore's Administration. 1850 

V_: 

tive Slave Law," which provided for tlie return to their 
owners of slaves escaping to a free State, was passed. Dan- 
iel Webster, a member of the United States Senate, contri- 
buted his aid in effecting this compromise, which, though 
it allayed the excitement between the two sections of the 
country, gave great offence to a large party in the North who 
were op})osed to all concessions to the slave jsower. 

2. " The vast region known as Utah was then in the posses- 
sion of the Indians and the Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, 
a religious sect founded by Joseph Smith, a native of Ver- 

Xhe mont. In 1832, Smith had twelve hundred fol- 
Mormons. lowers, when the whole sect removed to Missouri. 
As they professed to ]je the true saints, by virtue of which 
they were to become the inheritors of the western country, 
they became objects of distrust to* the Missourians. The 
militia were called out, but the Mormons avoided a conflict 
by crossing the Mississippi to Illinois. They prepared to 
make that State their home. On a bluff, overlooking the 
Mississippi, they founded a city, Naiivoo {iiaw'-voo), and 
erected an imposing temple (1840). Thefts and robberies 
were numerous in the vicinity, and these crimes were attrib- 
uted to the Mormons, some of whom were arrested. 

3. At length the Prophet, Smith, and his brother llyrum, 
Avere arrested and thrown into prison in the town of Carthage. 
A mob collected a few days after, and in the melee the 
brothers were slain. The spirit aroused against the Mormons 
was so violent that they could find safety alone in flight, and 
the following year they sold tlieir possessions, left tlieir 
beautiful city, which contained ten thousand inhabitants, and 
under chosen elders emigrated away across the i)lains and over 
the Rocky Mountains, and finally found a resting-place in the 
Great Basin (1844). As they were now upon the soil of Mex- 
ico, they hoped their troubles were at an end. They signifi- 
cantly called their new home, Deseret — the land of the Honey 
Bee ; and, to recruit their numbers, they sent missionaries to 
every quarter of the globe. 



1854 Repeal of tlie Missouri Comj^romise. 249 



4. Meantime they labored with great zeal in founding a city 
on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. It is on ground four 
thousand three hundred feet above the level of the ocean, and 
planned on a large scale ; its streets are eight rods wide, and 
every house is surrounded by a garden. Presently came the 
war with Mexico, and the ceding of all that region to the 
United States. The Mormons were the first to organize 
themselves as a territory, under the name of Deseret, but Con- 
gress saw proper to change the name to Utah. President 
Fillmore ajipointed Brigham Young, their leading elder, the 
first governor." 



Pierce'' s A dmmistration. 

1. Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, succeeded to the 

presidency on the 4tli of March, 1853. The next year the 

agitation of the " slavery question" was again revived by the 

passage of a law by Congress organizing the terri- Repeal 

tories of Kansas and Nebraska. This law re- °f *^® . 
. . , . Missouri 

pealed the Missouri Compromise, winch had ex- Compromise, 
eluded slavery from the entire region, and substituted 
what was called by some per- 
sons, " Squatter Sovereignty" 
or " Popular Sovereignty," 
that is, the right of the people 
in each territory to decide 
whether they would have slaves 
or not. The " Compromise of 
1820 " had been regarded as a 
sacred compact between the 
South and the North, and as 
such, for the third of a century 
had received the sanction of all 
parties. An intense excitement 
was again produced, especially in the Northern States. 

2. Now came the struggle again on the " slavery issue" 
between the North and the South, both making great exer- 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



250 Pierces Administration. 1864 

tions to send settlers to the new territory of Kansas. The 
_. .. South was first in the field, Missouri, a slave State, 

war in being near, and her citizens leading the way. 

Kansas. ^^^^ ^j^^ North, resolute to win Kansas for free- 
dom, poured a steady tide of emigration into the territory, 
and soon the Northern settlors outnumbered their competi- 
tors. Civil war ensued ; for those in the minority would 
not submit to be outvoted, and the peaceful citizens were 
resolved to defend their rights. This state of things for a 
considerable time rendered Kansas a scene of lawlessness and 
bloodshed (see page 253). 

3. " The acquisition of California made the importance of 
commercial treaties with the nations of eastern Asia more and 
more important. During Fillmore's term, Commodore Perry, 

Treaty brother of the hero of Lake Erie, was sent with a 
with Japan, squadron to open communication with the em- 
pire of Japan. The inhabitants of those islands from 
time immemorial had excluded foreigners. The authorities 
there were greatly astonished at the boldness of the com- 
modore when he ajipeared with his steamers — the first that 
ever floated on those waters — in the bay of Jeddo (or Yedo, 
DOW Tokio). He was ordered to depart ; but he declined, and 
insisted on seeing the proper authorities and making known 
to them the object of his friendly visit. 

4. At length a Japanese officer appeared, who promised to 
lay the matter before the emperor. Tlie 14tli of July (1853), 
was the day^ named to receive the letter from the American 
President. The commodore, escorted by a company of 
marines, landed. He was received with the pomp of an 
oriental pageant, and an answer to the letter promised the 
following spring. The answer was duly received, and a 
treaty concluded. The merchants of the United States ob- 
tained permission to trade in two sj)ecified ports, and also for 
the residence of American citizens and consuls at the two 
ports, as well as to visit without molestation in the interior, 
ten or twelve miles" (1854). 



Summary. 251 



SUMMARY. 

Washington's Administration. The adoption of Hamilton's financial 
measures ; the war with the Indians north of the Ohio ; the making 
of "Jay's Treaty;" the admission of Vermont, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee into the Union ; and the invention of the cotton-gin, were 
the principal events duriny; this administration (1789-1797).* 

John Adams's. The hostilities with France, the death of Washington, 
aud tlie removal of the national capitol to the city of Washington 
(1797-1801). 

Jeiferson's. The admission of Ohio into the Union, the purchase of the 
Louisiana territory, the war with the Barbary States, the duel be- 
tween Hamilton and Burr, the trial of Burr for treason, and Fulton's 
steamboat invention (1801-1809). 

Madison's. Tlie second war with England — of which Hull's surrender 
of Detroit, Perry's victory on Lake Erie, Harrison's successes, Brown's 
invasion of Canada, MacDonough's victory on Lake Champlain, the 
capture by the British of the city of Washington, the British repulse 
before Baltimore, and Jackson's defense of New Orleans, were the 
principal events — marks this administration. The Hartford Con- 
vention, the war with Algiers, and the admission of Louisiana and 
Indiana into the Union, were also important (1809-1817). 

Monroe's. The Seminole war ; the purchase of Florida ; the admission 
of Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri into- the 
Union ; the adoption of the " Missouri Compromise ;" and Lafayette's 
visit, were the important events (1817-1825). 

John ftuincy Adams's. The death of John Adams and of Jefferson oc- 
curred. Great progress was made in the work of internal improve- 
ments (1825-1839). 

Jackson's. Jackson's war against the United States Bank, the " nullifi- 
cation" movement of South Carolina, and the admission of Arkansas 
and Michigan into the Union (1839-1837) 

Van Buren's. " The Panic of 1837," and the formation of " Al olition 
Societies" (1837-1841). 

Harrison and Tyler's. The death of Harrison, Morse's magnetic-telegraph 
invention, the preliminary measures for the annexation of Texas, 
and the admission of Florida into the Union (1841-1845). 

Polk's. The war with Mexico, of which the campaig-ns of Taylor and 
Scott were the principal features, and the acquisition of California 
and other territory the result, marks this administration. The dis- 
covery of gold in California ; and the admission of Texas. Iowa, and 
Wisconsin into the Union, were also important (1845-1849). 

Taylor and Fillmore's. The death of Taylor, the adoption of the " Com- 
promise of 1850," and the admission of California into the Union 
(1849-1853). 

Pierce's. The repeal of the " Missouri Compromise," the civil war in 
Kansas, and the treaty with Japan, were the principal events of this 
administration (1853-1857). 



* For a history of the Constitution of the United States and explanations of its 
language, and information respectins; important features of laws enacted under it. 
Including a history of the District of Columbia, see the Appendix. 



252 Topical Remew. 



TOPICS FOR REVIEW. 

(See the hints and directions, p. 49.) '- 
BlOGH.\PHICAL. 

Washington. (Let the account be from his inauguration, and 

include an estimate of his character and influence.) - ■ - 182-194 
John Adams. (See Life and Works of John Adams, by 

his grandson, Charles Francis Adams.) . . . . 146-223 
Thomas Jefferson. (See Randall's Life of Jefferson ; also Parton's, 

and Tucker's.) - - - : 145-223 

Alexander Hamilton. (See Life of Hamilton, by his son, J. C. 

Hamilton; also Morse's Life of Hamilton.) - - - 179-200 
Aaron Burr. (See Parton's Life of Burr.) - . - - -141-201 
John Jay. (See Life of John Jay, by his son William Jay.) 179, 185, 180 
James Madison. (See Rives's Life of Madison.) - - - 179-319 
James Monroe. (See Lossing's Lives of the Presidents.) - - 219-222 
John Q. Adams. (See Seward's Life of J. Q. Adams ; also Josiah 

Quincy's.) 222-227 

Andrew Jackson. (See Parton's Life of Jackson ; also Benton's 

"Thirty Years' View.") 211 (note)-230 

John C. Calhoun. (See Jenkins's Life of Calhoun.) - - 224-247 
Martin Van Buren. (See Holland's Life of Van Buren.) - - 230-245 
William H. Harrison. (Dawson's " Memoirs of Harrison.") 205 (note)-235 
John Tyler. (See Los!<ing's Lives of the Presidents.) - - 234-236 
Daniel Webster. (See Edward Everett's Life of Webster ; also 

Curtis's ; also Lanman's., ..-..-- 147-248 
James K. Polk. (Jenkins's "History of Polk's Administration.") 237-245 
Henry Clay. (See Epes Sargent's Life of Clay ; also Colton's.) - 222-247 
Zachary Taylor. (See Powell's Life of Taylor.) - - 230 (note)-247 
Millard Fillmore. (See Barre's Life of Fillmore.) - - - 247-249 
Franklin Pierce. (See Hawthorne's Life of Pierce.) - - 249, 250 

Geographic.\l. 

Trenton 151-183 Hartford 69, 215 

New York. . . 148-233 Pensacoia 214, 219 

Philadelphia 139-191 Bostcm 127-221 

New Orleans 46, 214 Charleston 142-228 

Detroit 111,206,211 Monterey 239 

Lake Erie 209-211 Buena Vista 239 

Niagara river 107, 111, 212 City of Mexico 239-241 

Lundy's Lane 212, 213 Vera Cruz 240 

Plattsburg 213 Sacramento river 243 

Washington 195-213, 247 San Francisco 39, 246, 247 

Baltimore 213,214 Great Salt Lake 249 

HlSTORIC.\I.. 

Washington's inauguration 183, 184 Missouri Compromise 220-249 

Vermont 1.58,184,185 Lafayette's visit 221 

The cotton-gin 18G-188 United States Bank 184-227 

The Louisiana Purchase. . . 196-198 Nulli6cation 228, 229 

Barbary States Wars 198-217 Slavery.. 58, 112, 114, 188, 220, 231, 

Duel— Hamilton and Burr.. 200 236,247,249 

Fulton's first steamboat 201-203 Railroads 232. 233 

Second War with England. 205-216 War with Mexico 236-243 

Seminole Wars and Florida Magnetic Telegraph 236, 237 

219-230 (note). Gold in California 243-247 



1859 



Joliii BrowrC s Maid. 



253 




Buchatian's Administration. 

1. As the time for the presidential election approached, 
three candidates were put in nomination. A party, known 
as the American party, their leading principle being oppo- 
sition to " foreign in- ^^^ 
finence," and their 1 8th national 
motto, "Americans ^ ^^ ^°^- 
should rule America," presented 
ex- President Fillmore. A new 
party, the outgrowth of the 
"Free Soil" movement, com- 
posed principally of Whigs and 
Democrats who were opposed to 
the extension of slavery into free 
territory, nominated John C. 
Fremont, " the Pathfinder of 
the Rocky Mountains," who had 

rendered important service in the conquest of California during 
the Mexican war. The Democratic party, in favor of the exten- 
sion of slavery " wherever it found its way by the people's 
choice," nominated James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, and 
succeeded in electing him. The inauguration took place on 
the 4th of March, 1857. 

2. The slavery question continued to be the prominent 
topic of discussion ; and John Brown's Raid, which occurred 
in the fall of 1859, still further increased the bitterness of 
feeling then existing between the two sections of the coun- 
try. "Old John Brown," as he was often called, "had 
early conceived a fanatical hatred against slavery, and 
it became the master passion of his life. It joim Brown's 
was his day-dream that he should become the "^^^"i- 
Moses of the African race." After the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill (1854), his four elder sons went from Ohio to 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 



254 BuchanarC s Administration. 1860 

Kansas for the purpose of aiding in making the hitter a free 
State. They went nnarmed, but coming into conflict with 
the pro-slavery men from Missouri, wrote to their father to 
forward them some rifles. Instead, however, of sending the 
rifles, he carried them himself, and with such boldness and 
determination did he oppose the designs of those who wished 
to make Kansas a slave State, that he was both hated and 
feared by them. Near the town of Os-sa-wat'-o-mie, Avith 
less than twenty men he made an obstinate and successful 
defense against an attack of five hundred Missourians, and 
finally efliected a retreat in safety. " This encounter gave 
him a sort of national reputation, and the sobriquet of 
' Ossawatomie Brown ' clung to him until his death." 

3, Leaving Kansas, he and twenty-one associates seized the 
arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, for the purpose of m:iking 
it a rendezvous, his object being to liberate slaves (1859). But 
he greatly miscalculated as to the encouragement he would 
receive from the slaves and the resistance he would meet 
from the authorities, and the movement ended in total failure. 
Those engaged in it were overpowered by Virginia troops 
assisted by the national forces ; thirteen of their number 
were killed, two escaped, and the rest, including Brown, Avere 
tried, and, under the laws of Virginia, were executed.' 

4. The eightli census report showed a population in the 

United States of thirty-one and a half millions, of whom four 

millions were slaves. " This great population Avas assisted in 

„ ,.^. its toils by six millions of horses and two millions of 
Condition '' t • ■ , -ii- 

of thecountry working oxen. It owned eight milhons oi cows, 

in 1860. ffteen millions of other cattle, twenty-two mil- 

' The famous " Dred Sciott Decision," increased the hostile feeling at 
the North against the slave power. Dred Scott and liis wife were 
slaves, who had been carried by their master into Illinois, but were after- 
wards taken into Missouri. They claimed that having been carried into 
free territory by their master, they had been made free ; but Chief-Jus- 
tice Taney decided that slave masters could, under the Constitution of 
the United States, take their slaves into any State without any forfeiture 
of their property in them, just as they could take their horses or cattle. 
This decision, it was asserted by the Republicans, changed slavery from 
a heal to a national institution ; and they resisted it accordingly. 



1860 Secession. 255 

lions of sheep, and thirty -three millions of hogs. The 
products of the soil were enormous. The cotton crop of 
that year was close upon one million tons. The grain crop 
was twelve hundred millions of bushels — figures so large as 
to pass beyond our comprehension. Tobacco had more than 
doubled since 1850, until now America actually yielded a sup- 
2)ly of five hundred millions of pounds. The textile manu- 
factures reached the annual value of two hundred millions of 
dollars. There were five thousand miles of canals, and thirty 
thousand of railroads. Provision had been made for the edu- 
cation of the children by erecting one hundred and thirteen 
thousand schools and colleges, and employing one hundred and 
fifty thousand teachers. The educational institutions enjoyed 
revenues amounting to nearly thirty-five millions of dollars ; 
and the daily history of the world was supplied by four thou- 
sand newsj)apers, which circulated annually one thousand 
millions of copies." 

5. As Buchanan's term of office drew towards its close, no less 
than four candidates were nominated to succeed him.^ Of these, 
Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the Republicans, was suc- 
cessful, although the Southern leaders had threat- 

S6C6SS10I1 

ened that, if he should be elected, the States of the 
South would secede, that is, would withdraw from the Union, 
as they claimed the riglit to do. When, therefore, it became 
known that Lincoln, the candidate of the party opposed to 
the further extension of slavery, would be the next President, 
the secession movement began. Public meetings were held 
in South Carolina ; and, on the 20th of December, 1860, an 
ordinance was passed by a State convention, held in Charles- 
ton, which formally declared that the " Union now subsist- 

' The extreme pro-slavery party nominated John C. Breckenridge, 
who had been Vice-President under Buchanan ; the " Squatter Sove- 
reignty" party nominated Stephen A. Douglass. These two candidates 
divided the Democratic party. The American party, now known as the 
" Constitutional Union," nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, with the 
simple party platform, " The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforce- 
ment of the Laws. ' ' 



256 



BuchanarCs Administration. 



1861 



ing between Soiitli Carolina and other States, under the 
name of tlie United States of America, is hereby dissolved." 

6. Six days afterward, Major Anderson, of the national 
army, commanding at Fort Moultrie, withdrew the garrison of 
eighty men from that .^^^=ss^ttL» 



fort, and 

Occupation 

of 
Fort Sumter. 



removed 

to Fort 

Snmter, 

a place 
of greater security. 
This being regard- 
ed by the South Car- 
olinians as a hostile 
act, they at once ^^^^ sumtek, in i860, 

seized the custom-house at Charleston, as well as other prop- 
erty belonging to the general government, and commenced 
operations to drive Anderson from his new position. (See 
map, p. 143.) 

7. Six other States — Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, 
Louisiana, and Texas — following the 

lead of South Carolina, passed seces- 
sion ordinances in the early part of 
18G1 . In February a Congress of dele- 
gates from all these States, except 
Texas, met at Montgome- 
ry, and formed a govern - 
Confederacy. ^^^^^ ^.^^j^.^^ ^y^^ Confeder- 
ate States of America. Jefferson Da- 
vis, of Mississippi, was elected by the 
Congress President of the Confed- 
eracy, and, Texas being then repre- 
sented, was duly inaugurated. 

8. A steamer, sent from Ncav York with supplies and rein- 
Secession forccments for Fort Sumter, arrived off Charles- 
deeds, ton, but being fired upon by the batteries which had 

been erected by the Confederates, was compelled to put back. 



The 

Southern 




JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



1861 Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas. 257 

Thus South Carolina commenced the war by firing at the Amer- 
ican flag ; and '' the frantic tumult spread along every river 
and over every mountain in the slave States from Chesapeake 
bay to the Mexican frontier." Forts, arsenals, navy-yards, and 
other property of the nation, were seized by State authority 
for the Confederacy. Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, Fort 
Sumter, and the forts at the southern extremity of Florida, 
were all that remained to the general government within the 
limits of the seceded States. General Dix, Secretary of the 
National Treasury, ordered two revenue cutters, stationed at 
New Orleans, to be taken to New York, New Orleans being 
at the time in virtual possession of the secessionists ; but the 
captain of one of the cutters refusing to obey, he sent a tele- 
gram to the lieutenant, ordering the arrest of the captain and 
closing with the command, " If any one attempts to liaul 
down the AmeHcan flag^ sJioot him oti the spot." 

9. Three States were admitted to the Union during the admin- 
istration of Buchanan. Minnesota, admitted in 1858, though 
of recent settlement, had long been the seat of traffic with the 
Indians. Catholic missionaries had also estab- 
lished stations at an early date. The eastern por- 
tion of the State, that east of the Mississijjpi, was originally a 
part of the Northwest Territory ; the other portion, embracing 
more than two thirds of the area of the State, was originally a 
part of the "Louisiana Purchase." Oregon, admitted in 
1859, was first occupied in 1811, when a fur-trading post was 
established by John Jacob Astor, a wealthy merchant of New 
York, at the mouth of the Columbia river, and called 
Astoria. The river had been entered, for the first time, 
twenty years before, by the ship Columbia, Captain Gray, 
from Boston. The report made by Gray led President Jeffer- 
son to send the expedition, conducted by Lewis & Clarke, 
which, ascending the Missouri river and descending the head 
branches of the Columbia and the Columbia itself, reached 
the Pacific ocean (see page 196). Kansas, after six years of 
angry agitation, was quietly admitted into the Union in 18G1. 



258 



LincolrC s Administration. 



1861 



Lincoln'' s Administration. 




AHKAIIAM LINCOLN. 



1, The affairs of the conntrj, wlien Lincohi entered upon the 
office of President, March ith, 18G1, were in a sadly distract- 
ed condition. " Menaces that the President-elect would never 

Lincoln's '^^ permitted to take 
inauguration.the oath of office had 
been freely and loudly made ;" 
consequently General Scott took 
every precaution, and the " in- 
auguration took place amid a 
greater display of military than 
had ever before been witness- 
ed on such an occasion." In 
his address, which was mild 
and conciliatory, the President 
declared, with special emphasis, 
that he had no purpose or incli- 
nation to interfere with slavery where it already existed, fur- 
ther declaring that he had " no lawful right to do so." 

2. This assurance, however, had no effect whatever upon 
the Southern leaders. Avowing their duty to their States as 
more binding upon them than their obligations to the general 

Fall of government, they continued to prepare for war. 
Fort Sumter. ^ force of several thousand men was put under 
the command of General Beauregard {ho' -re-gard), who was 
ordered to reduce Fort Sumter ; and, accordingly, " the 
roar of a mortar quickly followed by the rushing shriek 
of a shell, gave notice to the world that the era of compro- 
mise and diplomacy was ended" (April 12, 1861). Soon all 
the guns of the assailiants were in operation, and in the course 
of thirty-four hours, more than three thousand shot and shell 
struck the works. The defense was feeble, owing to the 
smallness of the garrison and the scanty supply of ammuni- 
tion. In his report to the Secretary of War, Anderson s id : 
" Having defended Fort Sumter until the quarters were en- 



1861 Secession of other States. 259 

tirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge 
wall seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, 
and its door closed from the effects of the heat, four barrels 
and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no 
provisions but pork remaining, I accejited the terms of evacu- 
ation offered by General Beauregard, and marched out of the 
fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th inst. " On the following 
day Anderson sailed with his command for New York. 

3. " The welcome event," said a Southern writer, " was 
instantly announced in every part of Charleston by the ring- 
ing of bells, the pealing of cannon, the shouts of couriers 
dashing through the streets, and by every indica- _ 

tion of general rejoicing." "It was regarded as the news was 
the greatest day in the history of South Caroli- received, 
na." While exultation prevailed at the South, the news that 
the national flag had been fired upon and that Fort Sumter 
had fallen jiroduced an intense feeling of indignation at the 
North. Thousands of northern men who had previously 
been in sympathy with the South, now declared themselves 
in favor of the Union ; and President Lincoln's call for 
seventy-five thousand troops met with a hearty and favorable 
response from all the free States.^ Political differences were 
forgotten in the impulse to defend the national government. 
Two days after Lincoln's call for troops, Davis issued a pro- 
clamation inviting jn-ivaters to prey upon the commerce of the 
United States ; and this was followed by one from Lincoln, 
declaring the ports of the Confederate States to be in a state 
of blockade (April, 1861). 

4. With the exception of Delaware, not one of the slave 
States arranged itself promptly and decidedly on the side of the 
Union. Lincoln's call for troops had been addressed to all 



' A Massacluisetts re.ffiment, on its way to tlie defense of the capital, 
was attaclied, April 19th, in the streets of Baltimore by a mob of South- 
ern sympathizers. Bricks, stones, and pieces of iron were thrown from 
tlie upper windows of houses, and two of the soldiers were killed. Thus 
the anniversary of the battle of Lexington was signalized by the com- 
mencement of bloodshed in the Great Civil War. 



60 •) /~ » ^^' Gutty sbutg 



HARRISBURG 

N I A 




PART OF 

M A R Y L A N 

EASTERN PART OF 

V I R G I N I 

rn*9^.N.Y. 



1861 Battle of Bull Run. 261 

the States that had not passed secession ordinances, but 
four of them — Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and 
North Carolina — sent back defiant replies, and of 
soon joined the Confederacy. Virginians marched ^'^^^^ States, 
to attack Harper's Ferry, " but the officer in charge of that 
establishment having become aware of what was intended, 
blew up or set on fire the various workshoj^s and the arsenal, 
and effected a safe retreat. At the same time another party 
of Virginians prepared to seize the great naval station, the 
navy-yard near JN'orfolk. It contained founderies, ship- 
yards, docks, and machine shops. There were in it at least 
two thousand cannon, magazines containing more than a 
quarter of a million pounds of gunpowder, and great quanti- 
ties of shot and shell. There were also twelve war ships." 
A part of this immense property, valued at ten millions of 
dollars, was destroyed by the Union officers, who then fled, 
but the Confederates secured a vast amount and were thus 
armed, and provided with means for carrying on the war. 

5. It can hardly be said that the national government 

made any offensive movement before the 24th of May. Then, 

General Scott, commanding the Union army, sent a force 

into V^irginia, which occupied Arlington Heights, __ 

*= ^ ° & ' Movements 

opposite the city of Washington, and Alexandria. of the 

General Butler, commanding at Fortress Monroe, ^'""^ *^°°P^* 
" the largest and most powerful military work in the repub- 
lic," sent an expedition to drive the Confederates from two 
positions which they occupied a few miles from the fortress ; 
but it resulted in disaster (June 10th). In West Virginia, 
however, the Union general, George B. McClellan, was vic- 
torious in several engagements. 

6. After the secession of Virginia, Richmond became the 
capital of the Confederacy ; and the Southern army, number- 
ing a hundred thousand men, occupied a line through the 
State from Harper's Ferry to Norfolk. Of this Battle 
army, a large force, under Beauregard, was at °^ ^^^^ ^'"^• 
Manassas Junction, in front of which was the little stream of 



262 Lincoln^ s Administration. 1861 

Bull Run, in a narrow wooded valley. As the Union troops 
were raw and inexperienced, Scott hesitated to order a general 
advance, though the people of the North were very impatient 
because of the delay, and urged him to move " on to Rich- 
mond," and thus end the war. At length orders were given 
to General McDowell, who commanded a large part of the 
Union forces, to attack Beauregard. A desperate conflict 
ensued, in which more than forty thousand men were en- 
gaged. The advantage at first was upon the side of the 
Union army ; but the Confederates, being largely re-enforced, 
at last prevailed, and the national troops, exhausted and 
panic-stricken, fled in disorder towards Washingon (July 21st). 

7. This great disaster taught the people of the North that 
the task 'they had undertaken was greater than they had sup- 
posed ; but they did not waver. It stimulated them to greater 

New exertions. Congress voted to raise more money and 
war measures, men. " Having chosen our course," said Lincoln, 
" without guile, and with good purpose, let us renew our trust 
in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts." 
McClellan, whose campaign in West Virginia had given 
him the reinitation of an able commander, was called to 
Washington at the head of the Army of the Potomac, the 
aged Scott, on account of his bodily in- 
firmities, retiring from active service. 
Soon after, Scott, at his own request, 
having been placed on the retired list, 
McClellan was made commander-in- 
chief under the president ; and the for- 
tifications around Washington were 
strengthened so as to protect the capital 
from capture. 

8. In the meantime civil war raged 
in Missouri ; but the efforts of the se- °^^^"^^ m'clell.vn. 

The war cessionists to take the State out of the Union were 

in Missouri, frustrated, mainly tlirough the prompt action of 

General Lyon, aided by Colonel Sigel {sc'-gel). Having 




1861 Naval Operations. 263 

been confronted by a vastly superior force, at Wilson's Creek, 
near Springfield, and fearing that a backward movement 
would be fatal to the cause, Lyon made an attack upon the 
Confederates, but was defeated and slain (July 5th). ' General 
Fremont, Lyon's successor in the command at the West, 
formed a large army to drive the Confederates from Missouri, 
but while marching against them was superseded in the com- 
mand by the authorities at Washington (Nov.). 

9. Events showed that, to complete the blockade, nearly six 
hundred vessels, most of them steamers, would be required. 
Already the increase in the navy had been very rapid, more 
than two hundred vessels having been added to the Naval 
little fleet of about forty at the opening of the operations, 
war. These were doing effective service, but still in the 
darkness of night fast-sailing steamers, called " blockade 
runners," would elude the vigilance of the watchers, and get 
away with their cargoes of cotton, and get back again from 
England with muskets, powder, and other supplies much 
needed by the Confederates. Every month, hovvever, as the 
blockade fleet was increased, fewer vessels succeeded in get- 
ting out of the Southern ports. That the blockade was 
finally complete was shown by the destitution of the South, 
and the fact that there remained in the Southern States at 
the close of the war cotton of the value of three hundred 
millions of dollars in gold.^ 

10. A number of privateers were fitted out by the Confed- 
erates to roam over the sea and prey upon the merchant ships 
of the North. One of the most successful of these was the 



' This was followed, a little more than a month later, by the surrender 
of Colonel Mulligan, after an lieroic defense lasting through four days, 
to a Confederate force five times as large as his own. In November, a 
body of Union troops from Illinois, under General Grant, made a success- 
ful attack upon Belmont, Missouri, capturing the Confederate encamp- 
ment there ; but, on their way back to the river, suffered severe loss 
from fresh troops under General Polk. 

^ During the year 1801 the forts at the blockaded ports of Hatteras 
Inlet and Port Royal entrance were captured and converted into depots 
of supplies for the Union fleet. 



264 Lincoln\s Administration. 1861 

steamer Sumter, Captain Semmes {semz), which succeeded in 
Confederate running the blockade of New Orleans in June, 
privateers. After capturing a number of vessels, she crossed the 
Atlantic to deceive the cruisers in pursuit, and entered the bay 
of Gibraltar, where she was overtaken by a United States gun- 
boat, and not being able to escape, was sold. Semmes and her 
crew then went to England and obtained a faster vessel, which, 
under the name of the Alabama, afterwards became famous 
for its capture and destruction of American ships. 

11. In the latter part of the year an event occurred which 
threatened to put an end to the peaceful relations existing 
between England and the United States. Mason and Slidell, 
The Confederate ambassadors to England and France, 
Trent affair, had run the blockade, and taken passage at 
Havana in the English steamer Trent. Two hundred and 
fifty miles from port the Trent was intercepted by a war 
vessel of the United States, commanded by Captain Wilkes 
(wilks), and the two ambassadors were seized and held as 
prisoners. The people of the Nortb heartily commended the 
conduct of the American captain, but Lincoln said : " Cap- 
tain Wilkes undoubtedly meant well, but it Avill never do. 
This is the very thing the British captains used to do. They 
claimed the right of searching American ships and taking 
men out of them. That was the cause of the war of 1812. 
Now, we cannot abandon our own principles ; we shall have 
to give these men up, and apologize for what we have done." 
The news produced a violent excitement in England, and 
preparations were at once made for war ; but Lincoln's 
decision was carried out, and the demands of the British 
government were thus satisfied. ' 

' A feeling of in(lii!;niition existed in the North against Great Britain 
for having, in May, ISdl, recognized tlie Confederacy as n belligerent 
power, setting an example which France and other Eurr pean powers 
soon followed. The prompt surrender, liowever, of these Commission- 
ers was an act of prudence ; for, had war ensued with (Ireat Britain, 
it would have greatly aided the secession cause. Mason and (Slidell were 
confined in Fort Warren, Boston harbor, whence they were sent to Eng- 
land. 



1862 Union Successes. 265 



SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 

12. The whole Union force in the field at the beginning of 
1862 reached the enormous number of five hundred thousand 
men. The Confederate force was somewhat less. From a 
point on the Mississippi, a few miles below Cairo, the 
entire river to its mouth was in the possession of the Con- 
federates, and great preparations were made by both parties, 
one to retain and the other to gain the mastery of the river. 

13. In Kentucky, the Confederates were defeated at Mill 
Spring by General Thomas. Commodore (afterwards Admiral) 
Foote, commanding a fleet of gunboats, sailed up the Tennes- 
see, and reduced Fort Henry. A few days later, union 
General Grant, with the aid of the gunboats, made successes, 
an attack upon Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland river. The 
garrison, fifteen thousand strong, made a desperate defense 
of four days ; but the Confederate generals, Floyd and Pil- 
low, when they found that the fort could no longer be held, 
fled in the darkness of night. When General Buckner, on 
whom the command of the fort devolved, the next morning 
asked Grant for an armistice to arrange terms of capitulation, 
the latter replied: " No terms other than an unconditional 
and immediate surrender can be accepted" ' (Feb. 16th, 1862). 

14. The capture of these two forts caused the evacuation 
of Columbus— the so-styled " Gibraltar of the West" — and of 
Nashville, the capital of Tennessee. A dispatch had been 
received at the latter place, congratulating its authorities " on 
a great Confederate victory won by the garrison of Fort 
Donelson. The city was in a delirium of delight ; but on 
Sunday morning, while the j^eople were at church engaged in 
returning thanks, news came that the fort had fallen. A 
scene of hideous confusion at once ensued. The congrega- 
tions rushed into the streets. Every conveyance at hand was 
seized for the purpose of escaping from the place. Trunks 

' This led to the title XJ(nconditional) S(urrender) Grant. 



266 Lincoln's Administration. 1862 

and valuables were thrown from upper windows ; women, in 
terror, fled away, and a molj hastened to plunder the aban- 
doned Confederate stores." Foote, with his gunboats, 
descended the Mississippi, and, aided by General Pope, cap- 
tured Island No. 10, one of the strongest of the Confederate 
posts. A short time after, Mem]ihis was taken, the flotilla 
of gunboats for its protection having been defeated " in a 
contest resembling in many particulars the naval combats of 
ancient times." The successes of the Union fleet were stop- 
ped at Vicksburg, which was very strongly fortified. 

15. Grant's army, after the victory at Fort Donelson, pro- 
ceeded up the Tennessee river, by direction of General Hal- 
leek, the commander of the Western Department ; and Pitts- 
Battle burg Landing, a steamboat station on tlie west 

of Shiloh. bank of the river, was occupied. The encampment 
extended along the road to Corinth, on the right and left of 
a little log building known as Shiloh Church. Here, on the 
morning of the Gth of April, Grant was attacked by a large 
force under General A. S. Johnston, and, after a contest 
which raged till near nightfall, the Union troops were driven 
to the river, where they were protected by the gunboats. 
Johnston was killed. The next day, reinforcements having 
arrived for Grant, the Confederates, commanded by Beaure- 
gard, Avere in turn driven from their position and compelled 
to retreat (April 7th, 1862). 

16. The Union cause was also successful in Louisiana. A 
naval expedition, commanded by Captain (afterwards Com- 
modore) Farragut, including a flotilla of armed steamers and 

Taking of niortar boats, under the orders of Captain Porter, 
New Orleans, gjiiiefj from the Atlantic coast and entered the 
Mississippi, the great object of the expedition being the 
capture of New Orleans. About thirty miles above the 
mouth of the river were two forts, whicli, in the estima- 
tion of the Confederates, were the main defense of the city. 
For six days the fleet poured an incessant fire upon these 
forts, which was responded to with vigor. " At last Farragut 



1862 Taking of New Orleans. 267 



resolved to run by them. It was a hazardous undertaking. 
As the fleet advanced in order, and approached the forts, 
each boat delivered a terrific fire, and shot and shell belched 
forth from scores of guns. A dozen thunder storms never 
roared more terrifically than did the peal of hostile cannon. 
Still the gallant fleet kept on and passed the forts. Just 
then it was attacked by more than a dozen Confederate 
steamers, and such a naval battle ensued as baffles all 
description. Suddenly tlie foremost Federal vessels were in 
the midst of the Confederate fleet. Some of the latter's 
boats were rams, and they came rushing down the stream at 
full speed, butting into the Union fleet, singling out boats 
which they designed to sink, and then dashing into them 
with fury. The noise was awful. The guns in the fleets and 
forts, belching forth at once, together with the explosion of 
boilers and magazines, and the shrieks of scalded and 
wounded men, made an appalling noise. And then, too, 
steamboats were ablaze ; and a huge fire-raft, ploughing and 
cracking through the fleet, and setting fire to Farragut's flag- 
ship, added terror to the scene. It seemed as if both fleets 
must perish together in the deadly contest. But the victory 
was Farragut's, and he pushed on for New Orleans." ' 

17. The people of that city were thrown into " a panic as 
soon as they learned that the Union fleet had jiassed the 
forts and destroyed their gunboats. They ran hither and 
thither in the streets, frantic with fright and madness ; and 
sugar, molasses, cotton, and other articles of merchandise, 
were destroyed by them in large quantities. Gold and silver 
coin was taken from the Ijanks and carried away. In the 
midst of a thunder storm, Farragut anchored his squadron off 
New Orleans" (April 25th), and, a few days later, General 



' Meanwhile important successes attended the efforts of the Unionists 
on the Atlantic coast. A land and navul expedition captured Roanoke 
island. Elizabeth city was also captured, after a flotilla for its defense 
was destroyed ; a victory was uained at Newberu ; and Fort Pulaski, 
defending Savannah, was another Union trophy. 



268 Lincoln^ s Administration. 1862 

Butler, who had remained near the bombarded forts and 
completed their reduction, entered the city and placed it 
under martial law. Butler found it no easy task to govern 
the city, but " by severity he put down the mob. He cleaned 
the streets, enforced sanitary regulations, and kept out 
yellow fever." 

18. While disaster was thus attending the Confederate 
cause in Louisiana, an event occurred at the east which gave 
new life to it. At the breaking out of the war, the steam 

Attack of fi'ig'T-te Merrimac, one of the finest vessels in the 
the Virginia. American navy, costing more than a million of 
dollars, was lying in the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia. As 
elsewhere stated, the Union officers in charge there de- 
stroyed a large amount of property, in order to prevent its 
falling into the hands of the Confederates. They undertook 
to destroy the Merrimac, but only partially succeeded. The 
vessel was sunk, but her hull and machinery were not much 
injured. The Confederates, after taking possession of Nor- 
folk and its navy yard, raised her without difficulty, cut down 
her hull almost to the water's edge, and covered it with a 
thick plating of iron. A new name was then given to her — 
the Virginia. This vessel, on the 8th of March, steamed out 
from Norfolk, and destroyed the Federal ships of war Cum- 
berland and Congress, Avhich, unpre])ared for an encounter 
with such vessels, could make no effectual resistance. Only 
the coming on of night prevented the destruction of the 
beautiful frigate Minnesota, and other national vessels ; and 
it was anticipated that on the next day the iron-clad monster 
would complete her Avork. 

19. In the early part of the night, however, a newly- 
invented floating battery, called the Monitor,' arrived from 

' This vessel was designed and built at New York hv Captain Ericsson. 
She was about one hundred and seventy feet long, and as, owing to the 
grciit weight of iron on iier surface, she projected l)Ul sligl)tly above the 
water, she looked Hke a raft lieiiring a round turret al)Out twenty feet in 
diameter and nine feet liigh. She was covered witli nine-incli ])lates of 
iron, and was worked by a steam-engine entire)}' protected from the as- 
sailant's shot. 



1862 Battle of the Iron Ships. 269 

New York. " In the bright morning of the following day, 
Sunday, the Virginia was seen rounding the point Battle 
of land at the mouth of the Elizabeth river. She _ of the 
approached the Minnesota; but, lying near that "^"J^siiips. 
vesseljWhich was still stranded and supposed to be doomed, was 
a curious object, which some of the crew of the Virginia, 
straining their eyes, compared to a prodigious 'cheese-box on 
a plank.' It was another iron-clad — an experiment in naval 




FIGHT BETWEEN THE VIRGINIA AND THE MONITOR. 

architecture, which had come just in time to match the Con- 
federate curiosity in floating liatteries. The new actor on the 
scene which had come in such a dramatic coincidence was a 
defensive structure, different in appearance from any vessel 
that had previously been used in war. Her deck, unpro- 
tected by any bulwark, rose about two feet above the water, 
whilst from it projected a turret about nine feet high, and a 
small box-looking place at the stern, used as a pilot-house. 
In the turret she carried her sole armament, two heavy guns. 



270 Lincoln's Administration. 1862 



20. Tlic two strange combatants approached each other ; 
and when within about one hundred yards' distance the 
Monitor opened fire. The contest continued for the space of 
two hours, the distance between the two vessels varying from 
half a mile to close quarters, in which they were almost side 
to side, belching out their fire, the heavy blows on the iron 
sides of each being the only effect of the terrific cannonade. 
The strange-looking battery, with its black, revolving cupola, 
was more easily turned than the A^irginia, and had the greater 
speed. The great length and draft of the Virginia rendered it 
exceedingly difficult to work her. Once, in changing her 
position, she got aground, but succeeded in getting off again, 
and, turning rajiidly towards the Monitor, steamed directly at 
her, hoping with her torrilde armed prow, to end the contest. 
But the blow was not fairly given, and merely scraped the 
iron plates of her antagonist." At last the Virginia, in a 
disabled condition, steamed back to Norfolk. 

21. In the meantime, a vast army had been collected near 
Washington, under McClellan, the object of which was to 
capture the Confederate capital. Early in March an advance 

was ordered. McClellan embarked his troops for 
Peninsula Fortress Monroe, whence he commenced his march 
campaign. ^^^^ ^^^^ peninsula between the York and James 
rivers. " On to Richmond," was at that time, a war-cry of 
the northern people, " not because Richmond Avas a source 
of strength to the Confederacy, not because it offered any 
historical recollections, "not because it was the emblem of 
a nationality, but because it was in the eyes" of the people 
loyal to tlie Union, "■ a token of defiance to the" North. As 
McClellan 's plan of operations would leave Washington with- 
out adequate protection, Lincoln detained an army corps, 
under McDowell, for its security. It was expected that 
McClellan would make a rapid march against RichmoniJ ; 
but instead of this, the whole month of April was consunled 
in throwing up earthworks. The Confederates, having 
abandoned their works and fallen back, an advance column. 



1862 The Peninsula Campaign. 271 

under General Hooker, overtook the rear guard of the re- 
treating army at Williamsburg, Avhere a battle took place. 
Towards the latter part of May, McClellan had advanced to 
within seven miles of Richmond. Meanwhile, General Wool, 
proceeding from Fortress Monroe, took possession of Nor- 
folk, Avhich had been abandoned by direction of the authori- 
ties at Riehmoiid. In consequence of this loss, the Cqnfed- 
erates, on the following day, destroyed their famous iron- 
clad, the Virginia. 

22. At Fair Oaks, McClellan's army was attacked (May 
31), and a bloody but indecisive battle ensued, lasting nearly 
two days. General Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate 
general-in-chief, having been severely wounded, was relieved 
from duty, and General Lee appointed to the command. 
General Jackson, popularly known as 
"Stonewall Jackson," having defeated 
or eluded the Union armies in the 
Shenandoah valley," Joined Lee, and 
by a rapid movement threatened the 
communications of McClellan's army. 
After almost a month spent on the 
banks of the Chickahominy, McClel- 
lan, believing that the forces at his 
disposal were not sufficient to protect 
his lines, transferred his base of oper- 

. . , , 1 T • TTTi -1 J. T. J. JACKSON (StoneivaU). 

ations to the James river. While ef- 
fecting this movement, he was attacked by the Confederates, 
and a series of destructive battles ensued, which continued 
during seven days (June 25-jLily 1). In the last of these 
engagements — at Malvern Hill — Lee was repulsed, and Mc- 
Clellan was then enabled to retire to Harrison's Landing, on 

* " He had been pursued in vain by tliree major-generals (Fremont, 
McDowell, and Banks), and turning had made good his retreat. He had 
diverted large re-enforcements from McClellan, had neutralizerl a nation- 
al force of 60,000 men, and given to the Southern armies the prestige of 
victory." — Draper. The appellation Stonewall owed its origin to are- 
mark made by one of Jackson's officers. The officer said that at the bat- 
tle of Bull Run (July, 1861), Jackson " stood like a stone wall." 




272 



LincolrC s Administration. 



1862 



the James river. " Thus ended tlie great, the melancholy 
peninsula expedition." It was a terrible failure. 

23. At this time there were three armies in tlio vicinity of 
AVashington, one of which was under the command of Fre- 
mont, another, of Banks, and the third, of McDowell. These 

, wore united, forming one body, called the Army 

first invasion of Virginia, and General Pope was called from the 

t e or . ^Ypg^ Q^^ placed in command. Ilalleck was also 

called from the West, and appointed commander-in-chief, 

with jiis headquarters at Wasliington. As all thought of 

advancing against Richmond for 
the time being was abandoned, 
JVIcClellan's army was ordered to 
Join the new army under Pope, 
who proposed to march on Rich- 
mond by another route. Relieved 
from the immediate task of de- 
fending their capital, the Confed- 
erates moved northward to menace 
Washington. Jackson, command- 
ing the advance, attacked the 
force under Banks at Cedar 
Mountain, and compelled its re- 
treat. The main army, under 
Pope, encountered the entire 
Confederate army, and though the Union forces wore inferior 
in numbers, not having been re-enforced to any considerable 
extent by McClellan's troops, the Confederates were long 
hold at bay before Pope gave the order to retire. This con- 
test is known as the Second Battle of Bull Run (Aug. 29, 
30). Lee, taking advantage of his victory, crossed the 
Potomac into IMaryland. 

24. Pope, at his own request, having been relieved, Mc- 
Clellan was again intrusted with the command of the Federal 
forces in and around Washington, " The Confederate gen- 
eral had supposed that large re-enforcements would flock to 




GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE 



1862 Lee's First Invasion of the North. 273 

him in Maryland, but in this he was destined to disappoint- 
ment." McClellan, following Lee, the invaders were over- 
taken at Soutli mountain, and though they were defeated in 
the battle that ensued (Sept. 14), Harper's Ferry, with its gar- 
rison of more than eleven thousand men, and its vast muni- 
tions of war, was surrendered to a division of their army on 
the following morning. The captors of this important posi- 
tion hurried across the Potomac into Maryland, and joined 
Lee along the western bank of An-tie'-tam creek, a sluggish 
stream that flows into the Potomac. McClellan' s army, 
coming up, the Confederates were attacked (Sept. 17). " Not 
by military, but by political reasons was Lee constrained to 
fight the battle. The South would never be satisfied with the 
barren laurels acquired from Pope, nor was it possible to 
give up the expedition to the North without a struggle." 
The Southern troojjs made a most gallant defense, but, 
though they were not the victors, the result was not as deci- 
sive as might have been expected from the superior number of 
the assailants. 

25. " Long before the next day broke, the national troops, 
rising from their rest on the bare ground, made ready their cof- 
fee, and eating their simple breakfast, prepared for a renewal of 
the battle. ' They believed that Lee had no escape." The river 
was at his back. All that day passed and a second wearisome 
night, and " then there was news. Lee had given McClellan 
the slip. He had actually crossed the Potomac unmolested, 
and escaped into Virginia." Lee's army, though foiled and 
compelled to retreat, won commendation from foes as well as 
friends. " It had fought its way to the Potomac, crossed the 
stream, met the Union troops in two heavy engagements, 
fought the battle of Antietam — the greatest pitched battle of 
the war^ — and then recrossed the Potomac, back into Vir- 

* " Stuart, commanding a portion of Lee's cavalry, recrossed the Poto- 
mac, and made a raid into Penusj'lvania. He captured Cliambersburg, 
destroying a large quantity of supplies. He made a complete circuit 
round McClellan's army, and returned into Virginia The Confederates 
might truly boast that they had at length carried the war into the Free 
States." 



274 Lincoln s Administration. 18G2 

ginia. During all this time, covering the full space of a 
month, these troops rested but four days. And let it be 
always remembered to their honor, that of the men who 
performed this wonderful achievement, one-fifth Avere bare- 
foot, one half in rags, and the whole half famished." 

26. McClellan remained in Maryland till about the first of 
November, when he crossed the Potomac ; but President 
Lincoln, dissatisfied with his inactivity, appointed General 

Burnside's Burnside in his stead. '' Burnside, believing 
campaign, that the true line of operations against Eichmond 
was the direct one," advanced to the Rappahannock, oppo- 
site Fredericksburg. Lee, anticipating Burnside's move- 
ment, had meanwhile marched along the south side of the 
river to Fredericksburg ; and, while the Union troops were 
anxiously waiting for pontoons to enable them to cross the 
river, he improved the time by planting batteries on the hills 
in the rear of the city. The pontoons finally arrived and the 
river was crossed, but the heroic attemjits to carry the batter- 
ies were repulsed with terrible loss. Thirteen thousand men 
of Burnside's army fell, and he was compelled to recross the 
river (Dec. 13-15). i 

27. " For once, a whole people was rich. Money was 
' easy' enough to satisfy everybody, and everyljody had it in 
unstinted measure. The financial system adopted by the 

Confederate Confederate Government was singularly simple. 

money. It consisted chiefly in the issue of treasury notes 

enough to meet all the expenses of the Government, and, in 

the present advanced state of the art of printing, there was 



' In Mississippi, General Rosecrans, with a division of Grant's army, 
gained two important victories near Corinth. In Kentucky, General 
Bra.ci!; defeated the Union troops at Richmond, but at Perryville was 
himself defeated. Towards the close of the year a fierce struggle took 
place at Murfreesboro, Tenne.s.see, between the armies of Rosecrans (who 
had succeeded to the conunand recently held by General Buell), and 
Bragg. On the 2d, day of the new year (186;}), vicLtjry deciled for the 
national cause. Five "days afterward the Confederates lost Arkansas 
Post, Arkansas, 



1862 Confederate Money. 275 

but one difficulty incident to this process ; namely, the im- 
possibility of having the notes signed in the Treasury Depart- 
ment as fast as they were needed. There happened, how- 
ever, to be several thousand young ladies in Eiehmond will- 
ing to accept light and remunerative employment at their 
homes, and as it was really a matter of small moment whose 
names the notes bore, they were given out in sheets to these 
young ladies, who signed and returned them for a considera- 
tion. * * * 

28. Money was so easily got, and its value was so utterly 
uncertain, that we were never able to determine what was a 
fair price for anything. We fell into the habit of paying 
whatever was asked, knowing that to-morrow we should have 
to pay more. I bought coffee at forty dollars and tea at 
thirty dollars a pound on the same day. My dinner at a 
hotel cost me twenty dollars, and for some wretched tallow 
candles I paid ten dollars a pound. A facetious friend used 
to say ' prices were so high tliat nobody could see them. Be- 
fore the war,' he said, ' I went to market with the money in 
my pocket and brought beak my purchases in a basket ; but 
now I take the money in a basket and bring the things home 
in my pocket.' I believe the highest pri(ie, relativ^ely, I ever 
saw paid, was for a pair of boots. A cavalry officer, entering 
a little country store, found there one pair of boots which 
fitted him. He inquired the price. ' Two hundred dollars,' 
said the merchant. A five hundred dollar bill was offered, 
but the merchant having no smaller bills could not change it. 
' Never mind,' said the cavalier, ' I'll take the boots anyhow. 
Keep the change ; I never let a little matter of three hundred 
dollars stand in the way of a trade.' * * * The money was 
of so little value that we parted with it gladly whenever it 
would purchase anything desirable." 

29. '' A full treasury was necessary to defray the expenses 
of the war. The South had the means of making one in its 
cotton alone. But its government neglected those means, 
and limited its financial efforts to printing bank notes, with 



276 Lincohi's Administration. 1863 

which the country was soon flooded. Tlie necessity of actual 
Misapplication money in the treasury and the mode of raising 
ofmeans. jt were generally understood. It was that the 
Government should take the cotton from the owners and 
send it to Europe as fast as possible to be sold there. 
The owners were willing to accept any terms that might be 
fixed ; and sending to Europe was easy in all the first year of 
the Confederacy's existence. Its government went into 
operation early in February (1861). The blockade of the 
Southern ports was proclaimed in May, but was not at all 
effective until the end of the following winter, so that there 
was a period of about twelve months for the operation of con- 
verting four or five million bales of cotton into money." 

THIRD TEAR OF THE WAR. 

30. President Lincoln had said : " My paramount object is 
to save the Union, and not either to save or to destroy slavery. 
If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would 
do it ; if I could save it l:»y freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; 

^ . and if I could save it by freeing some, and leaving 
pationof others alone, I would also do that." Events con- 
es aves. ^j.q]]p(J him, and " desiring that all men every- 
where should be free," on the 1st of January, 18G3, he issued 
his memorable proclamation, by which the slaves in all the 
States and districts at war with the national government 
were declared to be forever free. Then " black regiments" 
began to be organized to fight in the national service, though 
colored troops had been previously employed in a few locali- 
ties. At the close of the year about fifty thousand colored 
men were in actual service, and before the close of the fol- 
lowing year the number had been more than doubled. 

31. Burnside having, at his own request, been relieved of 
Hooker's ^^^^ command of the army of the Potomac, Gen- 
campaign, erai Hooker, who had gained a reputation for gal- 
lant conduct in the " peninsula," and other campaigns, and 



1863 Battle of Gettysburg. 277 

who was popularly known by the title of "Fighting Joe," 
was appointed in his place. The army, re-enforced and in 
excellent condition, crossed the Rappahannock, to destroy 
Lee's army and march to Richmond. At Chancellors nlle, 
eleven miles from Fredericksburg, it encountered the Con- 
federate force, and after a terrible battle, was defeated with 
heavy loss (May 2d and 3d).^ This was " the culmination 
of a series of national disasters which had occurred since the 
beginning of the year." 

32. Encouraged by his success, Lee, whose army number- 
ed a hundred thousand men, began a northward movement, 
followed by Hooker. The minds of the Northern people 
were greatly alarmed, for a large and sj^lendid _ , 
army had been defeated, and seemed to be power- 2d invasion 
less against the invaders. The two opposing ° * ® °^* ' 
armies were now in Maryland, when Hooker resigned his 
command, which was at once transferred to General Meade. 
Militia forces were hurried to the seat of war, for the Con- 
federate general, it was reported, had boasted that he would 
" water his horses at the Delaware and the Hudson, and dic- 
tate terms of peace at Philadelphia or New York." Pennsyl- 
vania was again invaded ; and while Lee paused at Cham- 
bersburg, his advance was on the road to Hai'risburg ; but as 
Meade was in pursuit, he turned eastward to prevent his pro- 
gress. At Gettysburg, " a town destined to enduring cele- 
brity in American history," the two armies met, and one of 
the most terrible battles of the war was fought (July 1st, 2d, 
and 3d). Day after day, Lee advanced his troops against the 

' The Confederates lost General Jackson, " who fell in the midst of the 
triumph won by liis own hand." He was wounded during the night of 
the 2d, by the tire of liis own men, who mistook his staff and escort for 
the enemy's cavalry. He bore patiently his great suffering. " If I live, 
it will be best," he said ; " and if I die, it will be best. God knows and 
directs all things for the best." He died on the 10th. " Of all the gen- 
erals in the Confederate armies, no one so completely commanded thcT de- 
votion of his troops. It was felt throughout the South that his death 
more than counterbalanced the advantages, great as they Avere, of the 
victory." (See p. 271 and note.) 



278 LincoMs Administration. 1863 

lines of the Unionists ; but all in vain, and at last, after los- 
ing more than a third of his grand army, he was compelled 
to retreat. This was probably the most important and deci- 
sive engagement of the war. " Freedom was master on the 
continent." ^ 

33. In November, a little more than four months after, a 
great concourse of men and women met on this battle field of 
Gettysburg to consecrate a part of it as a national cemetery 
for the remains of the brave soldiers who had fallen. Lin- 

Obii ation ^^^^^ ^°°^ 1^'^^^ "^ ^^® ceremony. " When the 
to the appointed funeral oration Avas completed, a low 
pa no ea . j^^^^j-j-j^^^j. j..^,^ through the audience and the care- 
worn President, rising, ])ent reverently forward," and said : 

34. " Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought 
forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, 
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 
equal. Now, we are engaged in a great civil Avar, testing 
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedi- 
cated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of 
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field 
as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives 
that our nation might live. It is fitting that we should do 
this ; but, in a larger sense, we cannot hallow this ground. 
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have 
consecrated it far beyond any thing we can do. Tlie world 
will little note, nor long remember, Avhat Ave say here ; but 
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the liv- 
ing, rather to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished Avork Avhich 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced ; to 
consecrate ourselves to the great task remaining ; and to 
gather from the graves of these honored dead increased 
devotion to that cause for Avhich they gave their lives. Here 
let us resolve that they shall not have died in vain ; that this 
nation shall, under God, have a neAV birth of freedom ; and 

' The losses Avere fearful, 23,210 national troops were killed, Avounded, 
or missing. The Confederate loss was 3(5,000. 



1868 



Organizations of Mercy. 



279 



tliat government of the people, hy the people, and foi' the 
people shall not perish forever from the earth." 

35. The efforts put forth by the North to sustain the 
Union cause were not confined to the government and the 
army. The j^eople actively showed their interest, and their 
sympathy with those who had engaged in it. organizations 
Associations v/ere formed to relieve the necessi- of mercy. 
ties of the soldiers. Of these, the Christian and Sanitary 







PREPARED FOR THE BATTLE. 



Commissions did the most extensive work. " The Sanitary 
Commission gathered supporters from all classes of the peo- 
ple — physicians, clergymen, lawyers, merchants, tradesmen, 
laborers, and — how was it possible that it could be other- 
wise ? — conspicuously among all, very many Avomen. The 
wealthy man gave lavishly of his means ; the poor man a 



280 Lincoln's Adiiilnistratlon. 18G3 

portion, often not an inconsiderable portion, of his earnings ; 
the widow brought her mite. Soon the commission had an 
independent transportation of its own. It had hospitals, 
wagons, ambulances, cars. Ingenious men devised for it 
inventions of better litters, better stretchers, better ambu- 
anees. It secured comfortable transportation for the wound- 
ed soldier from the battle-field to the hospital. On the 
railroad it soon had its hospital cars, with kitchen, dispen- 
sary, and a surgeon's car in the midst. 

36. To the Sanitary Commission the government gave a 
most earnest support ; the peojile gave it their hearts. They 
furnished it with more than three millions of dollars in 
money, of which one million came from the Pacific States ; 
they sent it nine millions' worth of supplies. From fairs held 
in its interest very large sums were derived. What country, 
what age of the world can show such a splendid example of 
' organized mercy P'^ The Christian Commission, emulating 
the noble conduct of the Sanitary Commission, aided the sur- 
geon, helped the chaplain, folloAved the armies in their 
marches, went into the trenches and along the picket-line. 
Wherever there was a sick, a wounded, a dying man, an 
agent of the Commission was near by. It gave Christian 
burial whenever possible ; it marked the graves of the dead. 
It distributed nearly five millions of dollars in money and 
supplies." 

37. We turn to the West once more. Farragut's capture 
of New Orleans opened the lower part of the Mississii)pi ; 
and the victory of Shiloh, with its consequences, resulted in 

opening all the rest that had been previously held 
Mississippi by the Confederates, except the portion between 
opened, yicksburg and Port Hudson. It was Grant's ob- 
ject to complete the opening of the river throughout its en- 

' " Tlie Sanitary Commission was a genuine expression of the spirit of 
the people. It was to America in tliis century what the orders of chival- 
ry were to Euroi)e in their day." — Caiit/lc. " To the end of time it will 
stand in history as a worthy monument of the patriotism, the humanity, 
and the religion of a Cliristian democracy." — North American Review. 



1863 Draft Riot in New York. 281 

tire length. His first point of attack was Vicksburg, which 
had been so strongly fortified that it was considered impreg- 
nable. It was held by a powerful army under General Pem- 
berton. 

38. By a series of skillful movements, Grant seized a posi- 
tion suitable for operations. A number of battles took place, 
every day Grant's hold on Vicksburg becoming more secure. 
At last, " on the 3d of July, Pemberton saw that he was 
ready to make a final and fatal assault. That afternoon he 
wrote to his besieger asking an armistice. To this Grant 
promptly replied, and an interview consequently took place 
between the two commanders beneath an old oak tree. Pem- 
berton was irritable and indiscreet. Great and merciful, 
the conqueror bore, without an unkind remark, the petulance 
of his vanquished adversary, and returned him no railing 
reply." The next morning, July 4th, 1863, Vicksburg was 
surrendered. 

39. " While Grant had been besieging Vicksburg, Banks 
had been besieging Port Hudson ; and so closely had the 
operations been pressed that it was impossible for the place 
to hold out much longer. When, on the 6th of July, news 
came that Vicksburg had surrendered, it was needless and 
hopeless to continue the defense any longer." Port Hudson 
was accordingly surrendered on the 9th. '"' Thus the West- 
ern armies had accomplished their object, and the Mississippi 
was now open to the Gulf of Mexico. The Confederacy was 
cut asunder ; its right zone was isolated." 

40. An act of Congress empowered President Lincoln to 
recruit the army by drafting. As a call for three hundred 
thousand troops under this law was not fully responded to, a 
less number volunteering, it was found requisite j. ,. 

to resort to a draft. This excited great opposi- riot in 
tion ; and, in New York, a riot broke out while ^^^ °^^' 
the draft was in progress, which lasted four days (July 13- 
16), and was only put down by the most determined efforts 
of the police and the military. Buildings were sacked and 



282 Lincoln^ s Ad-ministration. 1863 

burned, and a large number of persons killed. The colored 
population of the city, being an object of particular hatred, 
to the rioters, suffered severely. 

41. As before stated, Rosecrans gained an important vic- 
tory over Bragg, at Murfreesboro. After a half year's inac- 
tivity, Rosecrans again advanced against Bragg, compelling 

_,, him to evacuate Chattanooga. Meanwhile, Lee, 

The war . 5^. \ ' 

in Tennessee having reached a secure position on the Rapidan, 
and Georgia. -^^ Virginia, hurried re-enforcements to Bragg, 
who, enjoined by the Richmond government, then turned upon 
his pursuers. The two armies met near Chiclcamauga creek, 
and a battle of two days ensued, the result of which was that 
the Federal army was partially routed. " On Thomas, who, 
in allusion to the events of the struggle, is often justly called 
' The Rock of Chichamaugn,' the weight of the battle now 
fell. Every thing depended on his 
firmness. If he, too, should be swept 
away, there was nothing but a flight 
across the Tennessee. In this su- 
preme moment Thomas proved equal 
to his task. Though more than half 
the army had abandoned him, Avith 
inflexible resolution he held his 
ground. One after another the Con- 
federate regiments surged up against 

GENEKAL THOMAS. Ill i. 1 " f i Tl 1 -11 

him, and broke at his leet hke billows 
of the sea. It was about sunset when they made their last 
charge. It was repelled, and they gave Avay to return no 
more (Sept. 19, 20)." 

42. The Union forces, driven behind the intrenchments 
of Chattanooga, with the Confederates holding the surround- 
ing hills — Lookout mountain and Missionary ridge — their 
position was critical indeed. They Avere also in danger of 
starvation ; and " the mud was so deep," wrote one of the 
soldiers, " that we could not travel by the road, but we got 
along pretty well by stepping from mule to mule as they lay 




1863 West Virginia and Nevada. 283 

dead from starvation by the way. " Still Thomas telegraphed : 
" I will hold fast till we starve." It was evident that some- 
thing must be done at once and quickly. Re-enforcements 
under Hooker were therefore rushed by rail to the aid of the 
troops, and Grant was ordered to take the command. Gen- 
eral Sherman, who had distinguished himself under Grant at 
the West, was also called to Chattanooga. 

43. On the morning after his arrival Grant decided upon 
a plan of action. Accordingly, while Sherman began the 
attack in the valley, Hooker and Thomas advanced to drive 
the Confederates from the mountains. " All day long there 
had been a misty rain. The clouds which had hovered over 
Lookout mountain during the morning, gradually settled 
into the valley ; and it was only from the roar of the battle, 
and the occasional glimpse that the troops in the valley could 
catch of the lines and standards that they knew of the strife 
and its progress. It was a battle above the clouds." All 
the strong positions of tlie Confederates were taken, and 
Bragg's army was completely routed (Nov. 23-25).^ 

44. The people in the western counties of Virginia were, 
from the beginning of the Avar, entirely opposed to secession. 
They not only refused to obey the secession ordinance passed 
by their legislature, but they took early measures ^ 

to effect a separation from the old State, and ob- Virginia 
tain admission as a State into the Union. Their ^^nd Nevada, 
efforts were crowned with success, the State being admitted 
in 1863, under the name of West Virginia. Xevada, the 
thirty-sixth member of the Union, was admitted the next year. 
This was originally a part of the territory acquired from 
Mexico by the treaty of 1848. Its mineral wealth led to its 

' General Longstreet, who had been sent by Bragg against Knoxville, 
was repulsed by Burnside. In Missouri and Kansas, guerrilhi bands, co- 
operating with tlie regular Confederate forces, carried on the work of 
plunder and destruction. A bold raid was made into Indiana and Ohio 
by the partisan ranger Morgan ; but he was pursued day and night for a 
distance of nearly seven hundred miles, and his band were killed, cap- 
tured, or scattered. Morgan himself was taken prisoner. 



284 LincoMs Administration. 1864 

rapid settlement and increase in population. It was named 
from the mountain range on its west, called the Sierra 
Nevada. 

rOUKTH YEAR OF THE WAR. 

45. Early in the year (1864), Sherman marched from 
Vicksburg across tlie State of Mississippi, and destroyed the 
railroad system centering at Meridian. On his return march, 

Red river crowds of fugitive slaves — from four to seven 
expedition, thousand in number — flocked to his army to make 
their escape. " They varied in age from one month to one 
hundred years. Some were on foot, some on horseback, 
some in ox-carts. Some were clad in their ' Sunday best,' 
the cast-off clothes of their masters. Of the women, some 
had bandana handkerchiefs twisted in turban fashion round 
their heads, or were decorated with scraps of ribbon and 
fantastic finery of every conceivable hue. These simple peo- 
ple believed that ' the day of Jubilee,' of which they had so 
often sung in their hymns and begged for in their prayers, 
had come at last." Sherman's troops were hurried to the aid 
of Banks, who, with the co-operation of Porter's fleet, was 
preparing to conduct an expedition against ShrcA^eport, on 
the Eed river.^ This, however, met with a series of disasters, 
which caused its entire failure. The vessels, in consequence 
of a fall in the river, were saved from capture and destruc- 
tion only by the construction of a dam a mile long across the- 
stream, by means of which the boats were enabled to go over 
the falls. The loss of men and material in this expedition 
was very great (March and April). ^ 

' In February the Union forces sustained a disastrous defeat at Olus- 
tee, Florida. The absence of troops to aid Banlis in tlie Red river expe- 
dition, induced tlie Confederates, luider General Forrest, to make a raid 
into Tennesse and Kentucky. Union City was captiu'ed. An attack 
upon Fort Pillow (April \2\\\), was bravely resisted ; but, at last, the 
place was carried by assault, and three hundred of its defenders, mostly 
colored troops, were massacred. 

° Sherman, himself, took no part in the Red river expedition. 



1864 Sherman^ s Campaign. 285 

46. All eyes were now turned to Grant, as the best and 
most successful of the Union generals ; and the President 
conferred on him the command of all the forces of the United 
States, under the title of Lieutenant-General.^ final plan 
This appointment produced several changes in the of operations, 
army. Sherman succeeded Grant in the command at Chat- 
tanooga ; but Meade, under Grant, retained the command of 
the Army of the Potomac. Both these armies were to act in 
concert, the one against Atlanta," the other against Rich- 
mond. " Every thing unimportant was to be abandoned, 
and the two centers of power — the army of Lee in Virginia 
and that of Johnston in Georgia — were to be assailed at the 
same time, and assailed incessantly, regardless of the sea- 
sons." 

47. *' On the 4th of May, the Army of the Potomac crossed 
the Rapidan, and Grant, sitting on a felled tree, telegraphed 
to Sherman to advance." Sherman's progress was disputed, 
but in vain. He won battles, outflanked his Sherman's 
opponent, drove him from one position after campaign, 
another, till, in July, he had nearly reached Atlanta. The 
Confederate government, becoming dissatisfied with, what 
was called, "Johnston's retreating policy," because he had 
" failed to arrest the advance of the enemy," put General 
Hood in command. This general, however, met with still 
greater disaster. His furious assaults upon the Union army 
Avere repulsed with heavy loss ; and, at last, when Sherman 
began to surround Atlanta, and had again defeated a large 
division of his army, he abandoned the city. " Atlanta is 

' An act of Congress was passed in February, 1864, providing for the 
appointment of a Lieutenaut-General to command all the aiTtiies of the 
Union, an honor which had never previously been conferred on any 
other than Washington, Scott being only such by brevet. President Lin- 
coln immediately nominated General Grant for the office, and the nomi- 
nation was confirmed on the od of March. 

^ Atlanta was a great railroad center, and had immense magazines, 
workshops, and stores, all of the greatest importance to the Confederate 
government. Hence this city became one of the chief objective points of 
the war at this time. 



286 



Lincoln'' s Administration. 



1864 




GENERAL SHERMAN. 



ours, and fairly won," telegraphed Sherman to Washington, 
and Lincoln wrote him a letter of thanks (Sept. 2). 

48. Finding that Hood had gone northward, with the 
design of destroying the com- 
munications of the Union army, 
instead of pursuing him, Sher- 
man sent Thomas to defend 
Tennessee, while he, himself, 
resolved to march through 
Georgia to the coast. At Nash- 

Battleof ville. Hood was de- 
Nashville, feutcd by Thomas in 
a terrific battle of two days 
(Dec. 15, 10). The Confeder- 
ate army was pursued day and 
night, and annihilated. Of 
Thomas it has been said : " He 
never lost a battle. He was 
believed to be very slow, but in Hood's army it was felt that 
he was fearfully sure." 

49. Breaking away entirely from his northern communica- 
tions, Sherman commenced (Nov. 15) his ever memorable 
march to the sea-coast. Passing through Georgia, and living up- 
on the counti'v as he advanced, " which abounded 

Saerman's "^ 

marcii to in corn, sweet potatoes, and meats, ' he successively 

the sea. occupied the State capital and other large towns. 
'' In a continuous line the army would have stretched over 
fifty miles, the wagon-train would have reached over thirty 
miles. At every halt the adjacent fields were covered with 
the horses, mules, and cattle. Nothing could be more pictu- 
resque than the bivouac in the majestic pine forests through 
which the march lay. Gi'oups of soldiers flitting past the red, 
glaring watch-fires ; some busy preparing supper ; some danc- 
ing, singing, talking ; and there was the low murmur of tbc 
vast host ; the moaning of the wind as it swept through the 
tops of the trees ; the neighing of horses, and the rustling 



1864 Granfs Campaign in Virginia. 287 

step of the picket-guard pacing his round, and outwatching 
the clear, cold night." Fort McAllister^ was reached, and 
carried by assault, and, on the morning of the 21st of De- 
cember, Sherman entered Savannah. In announcing his 
triumph to President Lincoln, he said : " I beg to present 
you a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred 
and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 
twenty-five thousand bales of cotton." Halleck, rejoicing 
in Sherman's success, pronounced his march as " the greatest 
one of this great war." Grant congratulated Sherman on 
" the successful termination of this most brilliant campaign." 
50. The campaign in Virginia was planned by Grant and 
conducted by him in person, Meade being second in com- 
mand. On the 4th of May, when he telegraphed to Sherman 
to advance, his own army was crossing the 
Eapidan. On the following day he encountered campaign 
Lee in a terrific contest, known as the battle of ^^ irgima. 
the Wilderness, which raged for two days, night putting an 
end to the struggle. " The dead lay thickly strewn among 
the trees — the Wilderness was throbbing with the wounded." 
Grant, determining to put his whole force between Lee and 
Eichmond, with his large army was enabled to outflank the 
Confederates, who retreated and took a position at Spottsyl- 
vania Court House, where another destructive battle was 
fought. " Thwarted there. Grant repeated the attempt at 
the North Anna ; thwarted there again, with inflexible 
determination he delivered an assault at Cold Harbor. ' I 
propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer,' he 
informed the Secretary of War." In this series of battles the 
Union loss was, probably, not less than fifty thousand men. 

' lu five weeks, the army marched more than three hundred miles. 
During this time, Sherman and liis troops were unheard of at the North, 
and great anxiety was felt on their account. The first news of the suc- 
cess and safety of Sherman's army was brought by scouts who left it as 
it was approaching Savannah. Hiding in the rice swamps by day, and 
paddling down the river at night, they succeeded in passing Fort Mc- 
Allister, near Savannah, and were picked up by the Union gunboats. 



288 LincoMs Administration. 1864 



51. Butler, co-operating with Grant, sailed from Fortress 
Monroe, but was compelled to intrench himself on the south 
side of the James. About the middle of June, Grunt effected 
a change of base by transferring his army to that side of the 
river, where his troops were confronted by the strong fortifi- 
cations of Petersburg, which, in spite of every effort of tlie 
Union general, were held by the Confederates till the follow- 
ing spring. 

52. In the meantime, the valley of the Shenandoah had been 

the scene of almost constant warfare. It was a part of Grant's 

plan that a movement, in co-operation with his own, should 

be made up the river, but it failed. Hunter was 
The . 

Shenandoah then put m command. The latter met with a 

valley, success at Piedmont, but, fearing pursuit by a su- 
perior force, retreated across the mountains into West Vir- 
ginia. The valley being thus open, Lee, secure for the 
time being behind his intrenchments at Petersburg and 
Riclimond, detached twenty thousand men under General 
Early, to make an attempt to capture Washington. 

53. Early crossed the Potomac into Maryland, and, at the 
Mo-noc'-a-cy river, with his overwhelming numbers, defeated 
a Union force from Baltimore. A part of his army advanced 
into Pennsylvania and set fire to Chambersburg, but being 
overtaken and defeated, escaped to the mountains. Grant 

hurried off troops for the defense of 
Washington, and Hunter desiring to 
be relieved, the command was given 
to General Sheridan. Sheridan at- 
tacked and routed Early at AVinches- 
ter (Sept. 19th), and, three days 
after, met and routed him again. 
^jj^^g^^^^^^^e '' T'l ;> week lie had destroyed or 
"^^^^^^^^^-^ captured half of Early's army, and 
MAjoK tiENEKAL SHERIDAN, (ji-jvcn thc rcst soutliward. " The 
next month, during the absence of Slieridan, his army was 
suddenly fittacked at Cedar Creek, and driven in disorder 




1864 AcMemments of the Navy. 289 

from its position. While the Confederates Avere plundering 
the captured camps, Sheridan, who had heard the firing, 
came up at full speed. He at once rallied his men, formed 
them in line, charged the Confederates, and, for the third 
time, utterly routed them. Early's army was destroyed, and 
the campaign in the Shenandoah valley was ended. 

54. The Confederates, by means of English-built privateers 
sailing under the Confederate flag, succeeded in destroying a 
large number of American merchantmen. Semmes, in the 
Alabama, by far the most important ship built ^ciiievements 
for the Confederates, resumed his career of de- of the navy, 
struction, luring his prey by hoisting the British flag, and 
then burning or bonding his victim. In June he entered the 
harbor of Cherbourg (slier' -ioorg) , France, where he was 
found by Captain Winslow of the national ship of war Kear- 
sarge (ke'-ar-sarg). Off that harbor an action took place 
between the two ships, resulting in the sinking of the xila- 
bama. Semmes and forty of his crew were taken out of the 
water by a British yacht, which, instead of delivering up the 
rescued men to the Kearsarge, steamed off to the English 
coast and there landed them. 

55. Of all the achievements of the navy of the United 
States during the war, not one was 
more brilliant than that of Admiral Far- 
ragut in Mobile bay, which place was 
well defended by forts, gun-boats, and 
an iron-clad ram (resembling the cele- 
brated Merrimac) called the Tennessee. 
The attacking fleet of monitors and 
wooden vessels moved up the bay, Far- 
ragut being on board his flag-ship, 
the Hartford, lashed at the main-top to 
the rigging, the better to observe oper- 
ations and give orders. He succeeded keab-admiral farragut. 
in passing the forts and dispersing the gun-boats, when the 
encounter with the ram took place ; but, sorely beset by the 




290 Lincoln] s Administration. I860 



fleet, badly crippled, and her commander severely wounded, 
the Tennessee was compelled to strike lier colors (Aug. 5). 

56t The twentieth national election took place in the fall 
of this year. The Republicans had again nominated Lin- 
coln. His opponent, the Democratic nominee, was General 
Re-election ^^cClellan. The seceded States, of course, took 
of President no part in the contest. Lincoln was chosen by a 
moon, ^^^y large majority, and Andrew Johnson, of 
Tennessee, Avas elected vice-president. Nevada's first presi- 
dential vote was given at this election. 



CLOSE OF THE WAR. 

67. Sherman, having halted at Savannah only long enough 

to refit his army, commenced a march, in the depth of 

winter, through the Carolinas, to join Grant, who was con- 

-, , fronting Lee near Kichmond. " The army that 

campaign was coming was not like those which in the earlier 

° ■ days of the war waited for the roads to dry, for 
the weather to become cooler and then to become warmer. " 
Like a tornado it passed on. " A black smoke, rising to the 
skies, marked its track." Columbia was captured. Charles- 
ton, in consequence, also fell ; ^ and once more the national 
fiag was raised over Fort Sumter, now a pile of ruins. On- 
ward Sherman pressed, passing into North Carolina, where 
he encountered and defeated a large Confederate army, com- 
manded by Johnston. The end was near. 

58. It became apparent to Lee that he must cither evacuate 
Richmond and Petersburg, or be captured. He then began 
to form a plan by which he might retreat into North Caro- 
lina, and there join Johnston. Anticipating this, Grant is- 

1 Fort Fisher, the main defense of Wilmington, was captured after a 
despomte resistance, Ijy a land force commanded by (reneral Terry, aided 
])y Porter's tieet (.Ian. 15). A month later, (Jciieral Si'hofield, co-ope- 
latini;- with the lleet, reduced Wilmuiyton. This was a severe loss to 
ilie ('onfederacy (Feb. 22). Schofield then acted under orders from 
yiierman. 



1865 Evacuation of Miclimond. 291 

sued instructions for a general movement against Richmond, 
and, on the morning of Wednesday, March 39th, The final 
it began. Sheridan's advance led to the battle campaign, 
of Five Forks and to a decisive victory for Sheridan (April 
1). The next morning, at daybreak, a general assault upon 
the Confederate lines was made, and before noon the entire 
exterior defenses were captured. " In Richmond, for it was 
Sunday, the people had assembled in the churches, knowing 
little of what was going on twenty miles distant at the front. 
Davis had repaired to his customary place of worship. There 
came up the aisle a messenger, who handed him a dispatch 
from Lee, which contained intelligence of the most momen- 
tous event of the war. The news quickly passed from lip to 
lip, from church to church.'" -* 

59. " Men, women, and children rushed from the churches. 
Wagons on the streets were soon hastily loaded at the depart- 
ments with boxes, trunks, etc., and driven to the Danville 
depot. Those who had determined to leave with Evacuation 
the fugitive government looked on with amaze- ofRichmond. 
ment ; then, convinced of the fact, rushed to follow the ex- 
ample. Vehicles suddenly rose to a premium value that was 
astounding ; and ten, fifteen, and even a hundred dollars, in 
gold or Federal currency, was offered for a conveyance. Sud- 
denly, as if by magic, the streets became filled with men, walk- 
ing as though for a wager, and behind them excited negroes 
with trunks, bundles, and luggage of every description. All 
over the city it was the same — wagons, trunks, bandboxes, 
and their owners, a mass of hurrying fugitives, filling the 
streets. The banks were all open, and depositors were as busy 
as bees removing their specie deposits ; and the directors 
were equally active in getting off their bullion. Hundreds 
of thousands of dollars of paper money were destroyed. 

' Jefferson Davis fled southward on tlie abandonment of Richmond ; 
but soon a party of cavalry started on his track. They followed him 
through the Carolinas into Georgia, where they suddenly came upon his 
hiding place ; and, notwithstanding an attempt to escape, he was dis- 
covered and seized. He was conveyed a prisoner to Fortress Monroe, 
where he was kept in confinement u'ntp 1867, wUeix he was released. 



292 LincolrC s Administration. 1865 

60. Niglit came, and with it came confusion worse con- 
founded. There was no sleep for human eyes in Richmond 
that night. The City Council liad met in the evening, and 
resolved to destroy all the liquor in the city, to avoid the dis- 
order consequent on the temptation to drink at such a time. 
About the hour of midnight the work commenced. Hun- 
dreds of barrels of liquor were rolled into the street. The 
gutters ran with a liquor-freshet, and the fumes filled and 
impregnated the air. Fine cases of bottled liquors were 
tossed into the street from third-story windows, and wrecked 
into a thousand pieces. As the Avork progressed, some strag- 
gling soldiers retreating through the city, managed to get 
hold of a quantity of the liquor. From that moment, law 
and order ceased to exist. The air was filled with wild cries 
of distress, or the yells of roving pillagers. 

61. But a more terrible element Avas to appear upon the 
scene. An order had been issued from General Ewell's head- 
quarters, to fire the four principal tobacco warehouses of the 
city. Mayor Mayo dispatched a remonstrance against this 
order, which plainly jDut in jeopardy the whole business por- 
tion of Richmond. It was not heeded. Nothing was, there- 
fore, left for the citizens but to submit to the destruction 
of their property. The warehouses were fired. The rams on 
the James river were blown up. The bridges leading out of 
the city were also fired, and were soon wrapped in flames. 

62. Morning broke ujjo n a scene such as those who wit- 
nessed it can never forget. The roar of an immense confla- 
gration sounded in their ears ; tongues of flame leaped from 
street to street ; and in this baleful glare were to be seen, as 
of demons, the figures of busy plunderers, moving, pushing, 
rioting, through the black smoke, and into the oi^en street, 
bearing away every conceivable sort of plunder." " The sun 
was an hour or more above the horizon, when suddenly there 
ran up the whole length of Main street the cry of ' Yankees ! ' 
' Yankees ! ' " The Union soldiers were indeed entering the 
city, and Petersburg was also in possession of the national 
forces. Over both cities the stars and stripes again floated. 



1865 Assassination of Lincoln. 293 

63. Lee retreated to the southwest, hoping to be able to 
join Johnston in North Carolina ; but his troops were hotly 
pursued. " There was no rest for them either by night or 
by day. If they attempted to snatch a few mo- „ , , 
ments' sleep, they were roused by the hoof -clatter of Lee and 
of Sheridan's cavalry. " At last, overtaken, and nston. 
seeing no hope of escape, Lee agreed to surrender. In the 
largest building of Appomattox Court House, which boasted 
of only five dwellings, he and Grant met. " Lee stood beside 
a table, wearing a bright bluish-gray uniform, a military hat 
with a gold cord, buckskin gauntlets, high riding-boots, and 
a beautiful sword. Grant, with his slouched hat, dark blue 
frock-coat covered with mud, pantaloons tucked in his soiled 
boots — wore no sword. They shook hands, sat down," and 
soon agreed to the terms of surrender (April 9).' The sur- 
render of Johnston soon followed, and the Great Civil War 
was at an end. 

64. The North had triumphed, and on every side were joy 
and gladness. Flags waved, bells rang, guns were fired, 
houses were illuminated ; but this great joy was soon and 
suddenly turned into mourning. Just forty days Assassination 
after President Lincoln had entered on his second of Lincoln, 
term, but less than a week after Lee's surrender, he was 
assassinated^ in a theater at Washington by a person named 

' ' On this occasion Grant exhibited the greatest magnanimity. He 
declined to receive the sword of Lee, and in his capitulation paroled him 
and the less than eight thousand Confederates who then and there 
grounded their arms. ' ' — Alex. II. Stephens. 

'■* As the President sat in his box in Ford's theater, with his wife and 
friends, the assassin stealthily approached, entered the box, and shot his 
victim in the back of the head. Then leaping to the stage, he waved his 
pistol, and shouted, ' Sic semper tyi-annis I" (the motto'of Virginia— <So 
be it to tyrants), and rushed away. In jumping, however, his spur had 
caught in the American flag which draped thebox, and he fell, injuring 
his leg severely. He nevertheless succeeded in making his escape, and 
tied into Maryland, where he was tracked to his hiding-place, and refus- 
ing to svn-render, was shot by one of the soldiers. Another assassin, 
with similar feelings of revenge, on the same evening broke into the 
chamber of Wm. H. Seward, tiie Secretary of State, who was lying sick, 
and made an almost fatal attack upon his life, 



294 LincoMs Administration. 1865 

Booth, who, sympathizing with the Confederate cause, had 
become frenzied by its faihire, and fancied that in killing 
the President he was avenging the wrongs of the South. 
The dying President lingered till morning in entire uncon- 
sciousness, and then passed away (April 15). The grief of 
the American peojile was deep and bitter. '' Never was a 
public man more sincerely lamented." 

65. Probably no other Avar in the history of the world 
called forth such mighty efforts as Avere made by both parties 
in this, the great " American Conflict ;'' nor was any similar 

Cost of struggle ever waged on so grand a scale, or Avith 
the war. go vast a destruction of men and material, espe- 
cially in proportion to the time of its duration — about four 
years. On the side of the National government nearly tAvo 
million seven hundred thousand men Avere enlisted during 
the war, of Avhom at least one million and a half were actu- 
ally and effectively engaged in the service. The Confederates, 
it is stated, could enlist only about six. hundred thousand 
men. Of this number " one third Avere either killed out- 
right upon the field or died of disease and Avounds. " The 
total losses, both sides included, probahly amounted to about 
six hundred thousand men ; and, Avith the Avoundcd and dis- 
abled, did not fall far short of a million. 

66. The national debt, at the close of the Avar, amounted 
to about twenty-seven hundred millions of dollars. " To it, 
should be added, the sums expended by the individual 
states and local bodies. The total rises above four thousand 
millions of dollars. " To raise the enormous sums for the 
support of the great armies and fleets, and for other ])ur])oses 
in carrying on the Avar, the Federal goA'crnment had asked 
for loans, which were freely granted ; taxes were imposed on 
incomes and manufactures ; and revenue stamps were re- 
quired for bonds, deeds, receipts, etc. The Confederate 
debt, Avhich must have amounted to a vast sum, Avas never 
paid. 

67. " In a land where every man is free to think and free 



1865 



Funeral of AbraTiam Lincoln. 



295 



to act as he likes — where, one might suppose, there would of 
necessity, be a Babel hubbub of confusion, and society only 
a rope of sand, the shot of a gun at their flag Miracles 
brought half a million of riflemen into the field, of the war. 
The waste of battle and of the hospitals was for years more than 
supplied. With admirable energy, an iron-clad navy, that 
could match the navies of the world, was sent to sea. Never 
was there such an exhibition of public resolution and of pri- 
vate charity. If an army of a hundred thousand men melted 
away before cannon and by fever, there was another army of 
a hundred and fifty thousand men put into its place. The 
wars of Europe, even those of the French Empire, were out- 
done in brilliancy and in result." 



Johnso7i''s A dministration. 



1. On the death of the lamented Lincoln, the vice-presi- 
dent, Andrew Johnson, became the third " accidental Presi- 
dent." The funeral obsequies 
of the late President ^ ^^ ^ 
occupied for a short of Abraham 
time the attention of ^^^^ ^' 
the Avhole people. His remains 
wei'e borne to Springfield, Illi- 
nois, the former home of the 
deceased ; and, as the procession 
moved on its long journey of 
neai'ly two thousand miles, the 
people everywhei'e sought to give 
expression to their reverential 
sorrow. At the great cities the 

body lay in state, and all business was suspended. 

2. The great work of disbanding the army was the first to 
be attended to. The leading ncAvspaper in Europe had said : 
" It is true that the United States have easily raised great 




ANDREW JOHNSON. 



296 Johnson'' s Administration. 1865 



armies, but they never will be able to return to a peace foot- 
ing. The soldiers are masters of the situation ; 
they cannot be disbanded. Military employment 
must be found for them." This prediction, it was soon 
shown, had no sufficient foundation ; for just as quickly as 
the soldiers were paid they gave back the arms they had used 
so bravely, and returned to their homes. 

3. The manner in which the States of the South should be 
restored to their former political standing, and the conditions 
that should be imposed to insure the protection of the eman- 
cipated slaves, occupied the attention of the Presi- 

Reconstxuction, iii/^ <? -iiii- j^i 

dent and Congress lor a considerable time, as they 

were not able to agree ujjon the proper policy to be pursued. 
Proclamations were issued by the President, removing re- 
strictions on commerce in the South, and declaring amnesty, 
or pardon, to all persons (except certain specified classes) 
who had been concerned in the organization and defense of 
the Confederacy. Several of the States that had belonged to 
the Confederacy hastened to repeal their secession ordi- 
nances, and accept a proposed amendment to the Consti- 
tution abolishing slavery in every part of the United States. 
This amendment — the thirteenth — having been duly approved 
by three-fourths of all the States of the Union, slavery was 
declared to be constitutionally abolished (Dec. 18, 18G5).' 

4. Much of the progress of " reconstruction" had been 
effected by Congress, in spite of the President's opposition. 
The latter held that the Southern States were never legally 
out of the Union, their ordinances of secession being void ; 
therefore they were entitled to representation at once in the 
United States Congress. Congress, however, while agreeing 
with the president, that the ordinances were void, insisted 
that, before the States which had been at war with the 
Union were admitted to their former relations to the Govern- 
ment, they should be required to retrace certain steps they 

' The ne3(t amendment, the 14th, was adopted in July, 1868. 



1869 Reconstruction Completed. 297 

had taken in legislation, respecting secession, and be further 
required to give certain guarantees. 

5. The President declared the position taken by Congress 
to be a " new rebellion ;" and in his messages and speeches 
he manifested open hostility to that body. The quarrel was 
brought to an issue by the passage of a resolution in the 
House of Eepresentatives, impeaching President Johnson of 
high crimes and misdemeanors. The impeachment articles, 
eleven in number, were duly submitted to the Senate, accord- 
ing to the provisions of the Constitution, and the President 
was tried on three of them. After a long trial, he was ac- 
quitted, a large majority, but not two-thirds of the Senators, 
having pronounced him guilty, when the Senate, as a court, 
adjourned (May 26, 1868). 

6. Previous to this, in 1867, the number of States had 
been increased to thirty-seven, by the admission of Nebraska, 
originally a part of the " Louisiana Purchase." During the 
same year the territorial possessions of the United Nebraska 
States were very greatly enlarged by the addition and Alaska, 
of Alaska, formerly known as Eussian America, a country 
valuable for its coast fisheries, its furs, and its forests of white 
pine and yellow cedar. This vast tract, larger than the 
original thirteen States, was purchased of Kussia for seven 
million two hundred thousand dollars in gfold. 



Grant's Administration. 

1. The candidate of the Eepublican party for President, 
in the fall of 1868, was General Grant ; that of the Demo- 
crats was Horatio Seymour. The former was elected by a 
very large majority. Grant's administration commenced on 
the 4th of March, 1869. During that year the Eeconstmction 
three States, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, completed, 
were restored to representation in Congress, and thus the 
" reconstruction of the Union" was fully accomplished. 



298 



Cfranfs Administration. 



1871 




Texas was tLe last State to accept the amended Constitution. 

This included a new amend- 
ment — tlie fifteenth — which 
guaranteed the riglit of suf- 
frage to all citizens of the 
United States without regard 
to " race, color, or previous 
condition of servitude." Its 
object was to secure to the 
negroes of every State in the 
"^^l^iPMii^^^H^^i^l^^ Union the privilege of voting. 

2. The depredations com- 
mitted by the Alabama and 

" other Confederate privateers, 

ULYSSES s. GRANT. \^y^\\^ .^y^^ cquippcd iu Brltlsh 

ports, were a cause of much ill-feeling on the part of the people 
^j^g of the United States against the British govern- 
Alabama ment ; and, while the latter refused to make any 
claims, compensation for the injury inflicted, this feeling 
continued. At length, after a correspondence between the 
two governments, continued from Lincoln's administration, 
a commission, composed of English and American repre- 
sentatives, met at AYashington, and concluded a treaty which 
provided for the settlement of " all causes of difference be- 
tween the two countries (1871)." 

3. In conformity with this treaty, a tribunal of five arbitra- 
tors — one from each of the countries, the United States, 
Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil — met in 



Destructive Conflag.ations.— In October, 1871, the most destructive 
fire in tlii' liistory of llu.s country occurred at C'hicago. About eighteen 
tliousand l)uildings were consumed. The area burned over was more 
tlian two tiiousaud acres ; and the value of property destroyed was not 
mucli less than two hundred million dollars. During the same month, 
forest fires raged in parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and jNIinnesota, and 
were scarcely less destructive than the Chicago conflagration. In a little 
more than a year after (Nov., 1872), a fire occurred in Boston, which laid 
waste sixty-five acres. The total loss, in houses and merchandise, wag 
about seventy-five million dollars. 



1872 Re-election of Grant. 299 

Geneva, Switzerland, where they examined and decided all 
questions submitted to them ; and finally made an award of 
damages to the amount of fifteen and a half million dollars, 
to be paid to the United States for the satisfaction of all the 
claims "known as the Alabama claims, growing out of the 
acts committed by the several vessels (1872)." Accordingly 
that amount was promptly paid by Great Britain. ' 

4. The twenty-second presidential election took place in 
the fall of 1872. There was little at issue betwen the j)oliti- 
cal parties. Grant was again the candidate of the Republi- 
cans. His comj^etitor was Horace Greeley, " a Re-election 
distinguished journalist and leader of public opin- of Grant, 
ion." The latter was the nominee of Republicans, who, call- 
ing themselves Liberal Republicans, were not satisfied with 
Grant's administration. He also received the nomination of 
the Democratic party. After the election on the part of the 
people was over, and it was certain that Grant had received a 
large majority of their votes, but before the " State electors" 
had met in their " respective States" to carry out the popu- 
lar decision, Greeley died. The excitement and labor of the 
campaign, together with domestic bereavement, had broken 
him down. 



Business Depression. — A money panic occurred in the Fall of 1873 ; 
and business depression, — the result of excessive speculation in railroad 
stocks, of railroad building, and other causes, — followed, and continued 
for a number of years. Some called all this trouble " the natural result 
of the war. ' ' 

' Among the provisions of the Washington treaty was one for the set- 
tlement of the northwest boundary from a point on the forty-ninth 
parallel to the Pacific ocean ; and another for the settlement of a long- 
standing dispute respecting the right of the people of the United States 
to catch fish off the coast of the British American provinces. The 
boundary dispute was referred to the Emperor of Germany, who made a 
dcc'ision in favor of the United States (1871). The fishery dispute was 
not settled till several years later. Three commissioners met in Halifax, 
Nova Scotia, and by a majority vote, decided that the United States 
should pay five and a half million dollars for the fishery privileges for a 
period of twelve years. The award was not regarded as eciuitable by 
the people and government of the United States, but the amount was 
duly paid (1878). 



300 Grant s Administration. 1876 

5. The year 1876, the centennial of American independ- 
ence, was one of great rejoicing throughout the Union. The 
important events of the Kevohition that liad occurred a hun- 

_,, dred years before — prominently that of the Declara- 

nation's tion of Independence — were duly commemorated, 
en ennia . ^j^jQ^^g w^^ most interesting events of this centen- 
nial year, was the International Exhibition at Philadelphia, 
commonly known as the " World's Fair." For the purposes 
of this exhibition, nearly two hundred buildings were erected 
in Fairmount Park, the six principal ones covering more 
than sixty acres. In tliese were exhibited specimens of the 
farming products and the manufactured goods of nearly every 
State in the Union, and of the most important foreign coun- 
tries. Beautiful works of art, and other articles designed to 
show the progress made by different States and countries in 
science and education, were also exhibited. During the six 
months in which the " Fair" was open, nearly ten million 
persons visited it. 

6. Another important event of the year was the admission 
of Colorado into the Union, hence this " Eocky Mountain 
Sister" is familiarly called the Centennial State. Part of its 

_,, territory, that north of the Arkansas river and east 

Centennial of the Rocky mountains, was originally a portion 

State. ^1 ^j^g ,, Louisiana Purchase." All the remaining 

portion was included in the Mexican cession of 1848. The 

Union now consists of thirty-eight States (1879). 

7. The growth of the nation during the hundred years of 
its existence was indeed marvelous. The first census, taken 
in 1790, showed a total population in the thirteen States and 

national territory, of about four millions. The 
century last census, that of 1870, made known the fact 
of progress, ^j^^^ ^|^g population of the United States exceeded 
thirty-eight millions. Of this number, the city of New 
York, which, in 1790, was smaller than Philadelphia, and 
contained only about thirty-three thousand inhabitants, had 
now almost a million. All the great cities of what used to be 



The Century of Progress. 801 

called the West, attained their astonishing growth within the 
century. Cincinnati, in 1805, contained only about five hun- 
dred inhabitants ; and Chicago, in 1831, was a mere village. 
St. Louis was but a small trading town, when, with Louisiana, 
it came under the United States government. New Orleans, 
then (in 1790) a French settlement, but in the possession 
of Spain, was a town of only a few hundred inhabitants. 

8. The vast fertile domain of our country, constantly pre- 
senting new fields for farming industry, has made agricul- 
ture the leading pursuit, except in some small sections. The 
immense production of the cereal grains, such as wheat, 
Indian corn, rye, oats, and barley, in the Northern States ; 
and of cotton, rice, sugar, etc., in the Southern, has of- 
fered a splendid reward to the farmer and the planter. The 
cultivation of cotton has been a prominent feature in the 
agricultural history of the country, and its results have revo- 
lutionized the commerce of the world. In 1790, it had hardly 
commenced ; but, in 1860, before the breaking out of the 
Civil War, it reached the enormous aggregate of two thou- 
sand million pounds, or four million bales, and was the chief 
article of export of the country. 

9. The magnetic telegraph has already been referred to. 
In 1860, there were over fifty thousand miles of telegraph 
wires in operation. The laying of the Atlantic cable, a 
telegraph stretching from Ireland to Newfoundland, upon 
the bed of the Atlantic ocean, was one of the most valuable 
as well as interesting achievements of science. After failures 
in the attempt in 1857, 1858, and 1865, it was at last 
accomplished, in 1866, by means of the Great Eastern, the 
largest steam vessel ever constructed. The success of this 
enterprise was largely due to the intelligence and untiring 
energy of Cyrus W. Field. 

10. Perhaps no country in the world has been more dis- 
tinguished for useful inventions than the United States. It 
was the discoveries of Dr. Franklin in electricity that led to 
its practical applications ; and to Morse is due the credit of 



302 



Grant's Administration. 



making the most useful of these in the electro-magnetic tele- 
graph (seep. 236). The cotton-gin, as we have seen, increased 
a hundredfold the value of the cotton culture (see p. 188). 
The history of the sewing-machine, like that of almost every 
other great piece of mechanism, shows that " the invention 
was a growth rather than an inspiration ;" but the name of 
Elias Ilowe is inseparably connected with the success of this 
invention of priceless value to civilization. American inge- 
nuity, too, has given us that wonder-working contrivance, 
the cylinder press, by means of which twenty-five thousand 
copies of a newspaper may be struck off in a single hour.^ 
To these may be added a host of other valuable inventions, 
including farming implements of the greatest utility. 

11. The improvements in the means of spreading informa- 
tion, by means of newspapers and books, have kept pace with 
every other kind of civil progress. The press, that mighty 
engine of civilization, lias been ever busy, ever increasing its 
])ower to meet the demands of the people for knowledge. 
Eight thousand periodicals were at this time issued in the 
United States, or about one for every five thousand inhabit- 
ants ; and the number of books published annually is more 
than three thousand. 

12. American literature is rich 
in works of genius. The writ- 
ings of AVashington Irving are 
everywhere admired for their easy, 
natural, and beautiful style, their 
kindly influence, and playful 
humor. Cooper, the American 
novelist, has never been surpassed 
in the power of description, par- 
ticularly of the peculiar feature of 
Indian life, and life on the ocean. 
IRVING. Bancroft, Prescott, Hildreth, Mot- 

ley, Palfrey, and Parkman, stand among the best Avriters 

• R. Hoe & Co. have now (1879) a press that will print 50,000 papers iu 
an hour. 




The Century of Progress. 



303 




BANCROFT. 



of history the world lias ever produced. The History of the 

United States, by one of these writers, George Bancroft, is a 

work of wide-spread fame. It has 

occupied very many years of its 

gifted author's life, and is not yet 

finished. 

13. American poets may justly 
claim a place with the most celebrat- 
ed of all countries. Several poems 
written by William Cullen Bryant 
must be as lasting as the language 
itself. There are few school gradu- 
ates who have not learned to admire 
" Thanatopsis," the "Planting of 
the Apple Tree," and a host of others, which have been used 
as the means of cultivating the taste of our youth, and im- 
pressing upon their minds sentiments of truth, beauty, and 
tenderness. Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell must 

also be added as among the 



great poets, not only of our 
own country, but of the world. 
In the domain of fiction and 
miscellaneous writing, besides 
Irving and Cooper, Haw- 
thorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
and Julia Ward Howe, ought 
to be mentioned with high 
commendation. This brief list 
would be greatly extended if 
we should include all who 
BRYANT. have achieved for themselves 

fame, and added luster to the literature of their country. 

14. "The public speeches of a nation's chief legis- 
lators are among the most luminous landmarks of its policy, 
the most lucid developments of the character and gen- 
ius of its institutions, and the noblest exhibitions of its 




304 



Granfs Administration. 



1877 




LONGliiLLOW. 

and others — we have tlie 
judgment. Their works 



intellect. The speeches of many of our greatest orators have 

not been preserved. Of the orations 
of Otis, which were described as 
' flames of fire,' we have but a few 
meagre reports. AVe are persuaded 
of the eloquence of Henry only by 
the history of its effects. The 
passionate appeals of the elder 
Adams, which ' moved his hearers 
from their seats,' are not in print. 
Of the great orators of a later day 
— Webster, Clay, Calhoun, John 
Quincy Adams, Everett, Sumner, 
means of forming a more accurate 
belong to our standard literature. 
They are thoroughly imbued with the national spirit. They 
glow with the feelings of the people." 

15. As Grant's second term of office drew towards its 
close, the two great political parties made their nominations 
for president. The candidate of the Democrats was Samuel 
23d National J- Tildeu, of New York, that of the Republicans 
election, -yvas Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio. The election 
was duly held ; but in consequence of disputes respect- 
ing the electoral votes of certain of the States, the result 
was in doubt. How should the votes be counted? As 
the Constitution did not clearly provide a method, a Com- 
mission, composed of five Senators, five Representatives, and 
five judges of the Supreme Court, was formed by Congress, 
to decide questions at issue, both parties agreeing to abide by 
the result. The Commission having given its decisions, one • 
hundred and eighty-five votes were counted for Hayes, and 
one hundred and eighty-four for Tilden. The president 
of the Senate, in the presence of both Houses of Congress as- 
sembled in joint convention, then declared Mr. Hayes to l)e 
the president elect (March 2, 1877). 



Nummary. 



305 



SUMMARY. 

Buchanan's Administration — ^Tlie "slavery question" was the 
great toiiic of discussion, aud "John Brown's Raid" intensified 
the discnssion. The presideui ial flection was the signal for the se- 
cession of South Carolina and other Southern States, and for the for- 
mation of the 'S(nitheru Confederacy. Minnesota, Oregon, and 
Kansas were admitted into the Union (ISS'/'-lSOl). 

Lincoln's. — The jjreat final conflict betwen the North and the 
South, the seeds of which were planted when slavery was intro- 
duced into Virofinia (1(319), was already begun when Lincoln was 
inaugurated. The ^\\w fired upmr the American flajj at Fort 
Sumter was followed by McClellan's defeat of the Confederates 
in West Virginia, by the movement an;ainst Richmond with its 
disastrous termination at Bull Run (July 31), by the blockade of 
the Confederate ports, by the extension of the war into Missouri, 
and by the capture of Mason and Slidell. 

The second year becjan with the campaign for opening the Mis- 
sissippi. The Union forces gained a victory at Mill Spring, cap. 
tured Forts Henry and Donelson, occupied Nashville, won a vic- 
tory at Shiloh, and gained New Orleans. Meanwhile a second 
campaign against Richmond, under McClellan, was on the eve of 
moving when the Confederate ram Virginia destroyed two Union 
ships-of-war, and then had the memorable engagement with the 
"Little Monitor." McClellan's campaign, with its " seven days' 
fighting," entled in failure ; and thus Lee, the Confederate com- 
mander, found it I asy to make a northern invasion ; but, though 
defeating Pope in the " second battle of Bull Run," he met with a 
repulse at Antietam, and was compelled to fall back into Virginia. 
The year closed with the failure of Burnside's campaign against 
Richmond. 

Lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation on the first day 
of the third year of the war. The operations for the opening of the 
Mississippi were continued : Murfreesboro was captured, and the 
surreniler of Vicksburg to Grant (July 4), with that of Port Hud- 
son to Banks, finished the task. The fourth campaign against 
Richmond, under Hooker, met with a disastrous defeat at Chan- 
cellorsville. Thus encouraged once more, Lee made another in- 
vasion of the North, but at Gettysburg met a defeat (July 3) from 
which the Confederates never recovered. Under Bragg, near Chat- 
tanooga, they won a victory, but in a second battle lost more than 
they had gained. The admission of West Virginia into the Union 
and the " Draft Riot "in New York were also important events 
of the year. 

After the Red river expedition, Sherman's movement against 
Atlanta and Grant's against Richmond began. Grant, with Lee 
as his antagonist, fought the Battle of the Wilderness, and then 



306 



Topics for Review. 



1865. 



1869. 



advanced to the vicinity of Petersburg. Lee's army, being- safe 
bebind intrencbnients, and the Shenandoah valley open, the Con- 
federates, under Early, entered the valley and invaded Maryland, 
but, after some succei^ses, were defeated by Sheridan, and, as 
an army, destroyi'd. Sherman, after lighting a number of battles 
and capturing Atlanta, made his great march to the sea. The de- 
struction of tlie Alabama by the Kearsarge, Farragut's victory in 
Mobile bay, and the admission of Nevada into the Union, were 
also important events. 

Sherman continued his campaign, and, advancing towards 
Richmond, captured Columbia; Cliaileston and U'ilmingtou, in 
consequence, fell into tlie hands of the Union forces. Meanwhile 
Grant, never losing an inch of ground, so pressed upon the Con- 
federates that they were finally compelled to evacuate Petersburg 
and Kichmond. The surrender of Lee and Johnson, the assassi- 
nation of Lincoln, and the constitutional abolishment of slavery, 
were the other notable events of the year. 

Johnson's Administration.— The abolishment of slavery, as stated 
by the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution 
(Dec. 1SG5), the adoption of the fourteenth amendment (July 1808), 
the President's impeachment and trial, and the ])urchase of 
Alaska, occurred during Johnson's administration (1805-1801)). 

Grant's. — The adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the Con- 
stitution (1870), tlie" Alabama Treaty," the great fire in Chicago, 
the National Centennial, the World's Fair at Philadelphia, and 
the admission of Colorado into the Union, belong to Grant's admin- 
istratiou (1869-1877). 



TOPICS FOR REVIEW. 

(See the hints and directions, p. 49.) 

Biographical. 

James Buchanan. -- -- 2r)3-2.j7 

Abraham Lincoln. (See Raymond's Life of Lincoln, also Bar- 
rett's, Crosliy's, and Holland's ; also Carpenter's " Six Months 
at the White House.") ------- 255-294 

Jefferson Davis. (See Alfriend's Life of Davis, also Pollard's 

"Snuihein Confederacy.") 256-291 

Winfield Scott. (See Mansfield's Life of Scott, also Headley's, 

and Victor's, and Scott's Autobiography.) - - 212, 228, 240, 262 

George B. McClellan. (See Hillard's Life of McCh'llan, also Vic- 
tor's.) - 201-290 

David G. Farragut. (See Headley's " Farragut and (mr Naval 

Commanders.") " - - 206-289 

Robert E. Lee. (See Cooke's Life of Lee, also McCabe's "Life 

and Campaigns of Lee.") 271-293 



Topics for Remem. 



307 



John C. Fremont. (See UpLam's " Life and Public Services of 

Fremont,'' also Magoon's Life of Fremont.) - - - 239-273 

Wm. T. Sherman. (^See "Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman by 

himself.") 283-290 

Joseph E. Johnston. (See " Narrative of Military Operations by 

Joseph E. Johnston.") - - 271-293 

Thomas J. Jackson. (See Addey's Life of Jackson, also Dabney's.) 271-277 

Andrew Johnson. (See Peterson's "Life, Speeches, and Services 

of Andrew Johnson.") -.-..-- 290-297 

IT. S. Grant. (See Badeau's Military History of Grant, also 
Phelps's Life of Grant, and Mrs. Stowe's " Men of Our 
Times.") --------- 263 (note)-304 

Geographical. 



Harper's Ferry, Va 254-273 

Charleston.. ..128, 142-166, 25o-290 

Fort Sumter 166, 256-290 

Montgomery, Ala 256, 261 

Columbia river 196, 257 

Alexandria, Va 261 

Norfolk, Va 261, 268, 271 

Richmond, Va 261-292 

Washington 19.5-213, 247-293 

New Orleans, 46, 214, 266-268 

Tennessee river 265, 266, 282 

Nashville, Teun 265,286 

Memphis, Tenn 266 

Corinth, Miss 266 

Wilmington, N. C 290 (note). 



Fredericksburg, Va 274 

Chancel lorsville, Va 277 

Chambersburg,Pa.273(note),277,288 

Gettysburg, Pa 277, 278 

Vicksburg, Miss 266, 280, 281 

New York 257, 268 281 

Murfreesboro', Tenn.. 274 (note), 282 

Chattanooga, Tenn 282, 283 

Atlanta, Ga 285 

Savannah 99, 164, 165, 267, 287 

Petersburg, Va 288, 292 

Winchester, Va 288 

Shenandoah vallev 288, 289 

Mobile and Mobile bay 214, 289 

Columbia, S. C 290 



Historical. 



Buchanan's election 253 

John Brown's raid 253, 254 

Lincoln's election and in- 
auguration 255, 258 

Secession 228, 255, 256,259 

Causes of the Civil War. . .253-258 

Southern Confederacy 256, 261 

Battle of Bull Run 261 

The Blockade 259-276 

The War in Missouri. 262, 263 (note). 

Tiie Trent Affair 264 

The War in Keniucky.265-284(note) 

Battle of Shiioh 266,280 

Capture of New Orleans . . .266, 267 
Battle — Virginia and Moni- 
tor 269 

The Peninsular Campaign . 270 

Lee's first invasion 272 

Burnside's Campaign 274 

Emancipation 276 

Hooker's operations 271-283 

Lee's second invasion 277 



Opening of the Mississippi. 265-281 
Draft Riot in New York. . . 281 
Rosecrans's operations. 274(note), 282 

The War in Tennessee 265-286 

Thomas's operations 265-283 

Red river expedition 284 

Sherman's march to the sea 286 
Grant's Campaign in Vir- 
ginia 285-293 

Butler's operations 261-288 

Alabama and Kearsarge. . .. 289 

Sheridan's operations 288-293 

Surrender of Lee and John- 
ston 293 

Assassination of Lincoln. . . 293 

Reconstruction 296,297 

President Johnson's im- 
peachment and trial 296, 297 

The Alabama Claims. .264, 289,298 

The World's Fair 300 

Century of Progress 300 

Political Parties 179, 194-304 



308 



Hayes" s Administration. 




KUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



Hayes's Administration. 

1. The oath of office was taken in the "White House" 

the President's mansion— by Mr. Hayes, on Sunday, March 
4th, 1877, a few persons only, besides the Chief -Justice of 

the United States, being present. 
The inaugural ceremonies took place 
on the following day, in tlie Capitol, 
when William A. Wheeler, of New 
York, the Vice-President elect, was 
also inducted into office. The new 
President had been an officer in the 
Union army during the Great Civil 
^^ ar, in which conllict he had ren- 
dered " gallant and distinguished 
service," and was four times wound- 
ed. Afterward he was a member of 
Congress and Governor of Ohio. His inaugural address, 
breathing the spirit of conciliation, was satisfactory to all 
parts of the Union— the South as well as the North, the East 
as well as tlie West. 

2. During this administration, efforts have been made to 
effect a reform in the civil service of the government, by the 
appointment to office of persons of the best character and at- 
tainments, with less regard to political influence. 

^£^°Q*j^°*The fishery dispute, resijccting the right of the peo- 
ple of the United States to catch fish off the coast 
of the British- American provinces, has also been settled for a 
term of years (see note, p. 299). The railroad riots, begun 
in Maryland by the firemen and brakemen of a freight train, 
against a reduction of their wages, and extended through 
Pennsylvania and other States, by which a vast amount of 
property was destroyed and several lives lost, was an alarming 
event of the summer of 1877. At an early stage in the pro- 



Hayes' s Administratiin. 309 

gress of the Great Civil War, tlie banks of tlie country, as 
well as the general government, discontinued the payment of 
gold and silver, using paper money — mostly "greenbacks" — 
instead. This '" susjjension of specie payments" continued 
till the 1st of January, 1879, when the banks and government 
resumed specie payments, and gold and silver money once 
more came into common use. 



310 Acquisition of Territory. 

ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY. 

(See Map opposite page 243.) 

Original Territory.— The territorial limits of the United States at the 
close of the Revolution extended to the Mississippi on the west and the 
great lakes on the north. Within these limits were included the terri- 
tory of Maine, then a district of Massachusetts, and the territory of Ver- 
mont, claimed by both New York and New Hampshire (see j). 184), but 
no part of the country bordering- on the Gulf of Mexico was so included. 

The Louisiana Purchase. — The tirst accjuisition of territory was a vast 
domain stretching from the Mississipjn to the Rocky mountains. This 
was ])urchased of France in 180o (see p. 196). All of tiie present States 
of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkan.sas, Iowa, and Nebraska, and the Terri- 
tories of Montana and Dakota, with the greater part of Minnesota and 
Kansas, and a small portion of Colorado and Wyominpf, belonpred to this 
domain. That part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi belonged to the 
orijjinal territory of the United States. 

Florida.^The second acquisition was Florida. This was made in 
1819-21, by purchase from Spain (see p. 220). During the second war 
with Enfrlaud (p. 200) the United States occupied that part of the Florida 
lands, now of the State of Alabama, bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, and 
they held possession of it when the treaty of cession was made. How 
far Florida extended westward, even at that late day, was not fully be- 
yond dispute. 

Oregon. — The entire region west of the Rocky mountains, from lati- 
tude 42° to about 54,° was long- known as Oregon. It was claimed by 
both the United States and Great Britain. Some writers liave regarded 
Oregon as a part of the " Louisiana Purchase," but the researches of Mr. 
Greenhow (see the notes, pp. 198, 243) and the whole history of the 
"Oregon Controversy" j^o to prove the contrary. Tlie claim of the 
United States was based upon the fact: 1st, that an American ship was 
the first to enter and ascend to a considerabh; distance tlie great river of 
the region (see p. 258) ; 2d, that the first extensive exploration of the 
region was made liy Americans under the direction of the United States 
government (see pp. 196, 257) ; and 3d, that the first settlement in the 
region was made by Americans see p. 257). To this it may be added 
that when, in 1819-21, the United States made a treaty with Spain for 
the purchase of Florida, all the "rights, claims, and pretensions" of 
Spain to the Oi'egon region were transferred to the United States. After 
an angry controversy with Great Britain, lasting through several years, 
that power, in 1846, abandoned her ])retensions to all south of the 49th 
parallel. The region thus yielded was then organized as the Territory 
of Oregon. It now includes the State of Oregon and the Territories of 
Washington and Idaho. 

Texas, California, etc. — Texas was acquired by annexation (see pp. 23G, 
238), and the immense tract now belonging to the United States be- 
tween that State and the Pacific was acquired from Mexico by conquest 
and purchase (see p. 243). All of the present States of California and 
Nevada, and tlie Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and L^tah, with 
such portion of Kansas, Colorado, and ^^'yoming as was not included 
in the " Louisiana Purchase," belonged to the region acquired by annexa- 
tion, or by coiKjuest and purchase from Mexico. 

Alaska. — This territory, formerly known as Russian America, was pur- 
chased of Piussia in 1867 (see p. 297). 



THE STATES. 



THE ORIGtN OF THEIR NAMES, AND THE POPULAK OR PET NAMES 
APPLIED TO THEM. 



Virginia was so called by Queen Elizabeth because it was discovered dur- 
ing the reign of the virgin queen. The popular name for this State 
is the Old Dominion, but the origin of the term has not been satisfac- 
torily determined. It is also called the Mother of States, because 
from its extensive original domain a number of States were formed, 
in whole or in part. The name Mother of Presidents is likewise given 
to it, because six of the Presidents of the United States were born 
in the State. 

New York. — The name was bestowed in compliment to the Duke of York 
(see p. 85). This, the Empire State, is the most populous and the 
wealthiest State in the Union. It is also known as the Excelsior 
State, the motto Excelsior being on its coat of arms. 

Massachusetts. — " The name probably arose frqm the name of a tribe of 
Indians formerly at Barnstable, or from two Indian words, mas, signi- 
fying an //iffe?i arrow-head, and wetuset, a hill." Massachusetts, be- 
fore the Revolution, w;is called the Massachusetts Bay Colony, hence 
its popular name of the Bai/ State, or the Old Bay State. 

New Hampshire. — The pi-oviuce was named after the county in England, 
Hampshire, in which John Mason lived (see p. 67). New Hampshire 
is known as the Granite State, the mountainous portions being largely 
composed of granite. 

Connecticut. — This was the Indian name of the river, meaning the long 
river. Connecticut is often alluded to as the Land of Steady Habits, 
in allusion to the staid deportment of its inhabitants. Also, the Nut- 
meg State, " the inhabitants of which have such a reputation for 
shrewdness that they have been jocosely accused of palming off 
wooden nutmegs on unsuspecting purchasers, instead of the genuine 
article." 

Maryland. — ^In tlie charter granted by Charles I. the province was named 
Terra Maria', Mary's Laud, in honor of his wife, Henrietta Maria 
(see note, p. 88). 

Bhode Island.— The island itself, says one authority, " was so called from 
a fancied resemblance to the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean 
pea," 'Another authority says : that in consequence of the reddish 



312 TJie States. 



appearance of tlie island, it " was soon known by the Dutch as Roode, 
or Red Island. From this is derived the name of the island and State." 
Rhode Islaud is called Little Rhody, it being the smallest of the States- 
Delaware. — This State takes its name from Lord De la Ware, one of the 
governors of Virginia (see p. 55). It is sometimes called the Diamond 
State from its small size and great importance. Also, the Blue lien, 
an officer in the war of the Revolution, commanding a Delaware regi- 
ment, having asserted that no fighting cock could be truly game 
whose mother was not a blue hen. 

North Carolina. — The name C'arolina was given to the region in honor of 
the French king, Charles {Carolus, in Latin) IX. (see p. 97). When 
we hear any one speak of the Old North State we know that North 
Carolina is meant. It is also called the Turpentine State, immense 
quantities of turpentine being produced there. 

South Carolina is called the Palmetto State, " from the arms of the State, 
which contain a picture of a palmetto tree." 

New Jersey derived its name from the island of Jersey (see p. 8G). The 
pet name that has long been applied to the people of this State is the 
Jersey Blues. 

Pennsylvania. — The word means Penn's woods or Penn's forest (see 
p. 92). Pennsylvania is called the Keystone (Sto^^^ " from its having 
been the central State of the Union at the time of the formation of 
the Constitution. If the names of the thirteen original Slates are 
arranged in the form of an arch, Pennsylvania will occupy the place 
of the keystone." 

Georgia. — The colony was so called in honor of the king, George II. 
(see p. 99). Georgia has been spoken of as the Empire State of the 
South, but the term more properly Ijelongs to Texas. 

Vermont. — When th(i French were in possession of the St. Lawrence 
valley they called the Green Mountains, Vermont, vert, meaning green, 
and niont, mountain. Vermont is, in familiar terms, called the Green 
Moutdain State, and its male inhabitants are called the Green Moun- 
tain Boys. 

Kentucky. — An Indian word, signifying, says J. II. Trumbull, "at the 
head of a river." The popular name of the State is the Corn-Cracker 
State; its inhabitants are often called Corn-Crackers. 

Tennessee. — An Indian word, signifying river of the hiy bend. Tennessee 
has been called the Volunteer St<ite, from the fact that during tlie war 
of 1812 and the wars against the Seminoles it furnished large numbers 
of volunteer soldiers. 

Ohio. — An Indian word, meaning beautiful. Ohio is called the Buckeye 
State, from the buckeye tree which abounds there, The inhabitauta 
are oftcu culled Buckeye^, 



The States. 313 



Louisiana was so called in honor of Louis XIV., of France (see p. 46). It 
- is called tlie Creole State, the descendants of the original French and 
Spanish settlers being a large part of the habitants. 
Indiana. — From the word Indian. The name Indiana was first applied 
in 1768 to a grant of land north of and near the Ohio river which a 
company of traders that year obtained from the Indians. Indiana is 
known as the Hoosier State, and its inhabitants as Hooders. "The 
word is said to be a corruption of husher, formerly a common term for 
a bully throughout the West." 
Mississippi. — An Indian name, signifying the great and long river. Because 
of its numerous bayous or creeks, Mississippi is known as the Bayou 
State. 

Illinois. — The first part of this word, signifying men, is of Indian origin ; 
the remaining part, ois, meaning tribe of men, is from the French. 
This State, in allusion to its wide-spread and beautiful prairies, is known 
as the Prairie State. 

Alabama. — An Indian word, said to signify here we rest. 

Maine. — Authors do not agree as to how and when Maine received its 
name. One writer says : " It was called the Main land, to distinguish 
it from the islands along the coast, which were valuable for fishing 
purposes." Varney, in his History of Maine, says : " In 1639 Gorges 
procured a royal grant of land extending from the Piscataqua to the 
Kennebec. The name of the territory under the new charter was 
changed to Maine, in honor of the queen (Henrietta Maria, wife of 
Charles I.), whose patrimonial estate, as Princess of France, was the 
French province of Mayne." Maine is i\\e Lumher State, " the in- 
habitants being largely engaged in cutting and rafting lumber." 

Missouri. — This is an Indian name, signifying muddy. It was, of course, 
first applied to the river. 

Arkansas. — Kansas, an Indian word, signifies smoky loater. The prefix 
ar {arc), meaning a, how, is French. Because of the number of bears 
that infested its forests, Arkansas is often called the Bear State. 

Michigan. — Trumbull says : " The word is Indian, signifying a loeir for 
fish." Another autliority says : " It signifies great lake." Michigan is 
known as the Lake State, it bordering on four great lakes ; also as the 
Wolverine State, because of the great number of wolverines formerly 
abounding there. The inhabitants are sometimes designated as Wol- 
verines. 

Florida was discovered on Pascua Fhrida day, hence its name (see p. 
33). Florida's pet name is the Penimula State. 

Texas. — " The name was derived from a small tribe of Indians that 
inhabited a village called 2'ehas, meaning friendly." Texas is called. 



314 The States. 



the Lone Star State, the Texas flag, before the admission of the State 
into the Union, having a single star. The coat of arms of the State 
has a " lone star" (see p. 236). 

Iowa. — This, according to Trumbull, is "the French form of an Indian 
word, signifying the drowsy or the sleepy ones." Iowa is called the 
Ilaickeye State, after an Indian chief. 

Wisconsin. — This State takes its name from a large tributary of the 
MisHissi[)i)i discovered by Marquette, and calle-d by him Masconsin {tcilil 
rushiny clianneV). Masconsin became changed to Ouisconsin, and finally 
to Wisconsin. Owing to the great number of badgers that were 
formerly in the State, it was and is called the Badger State. The 
State's coat of arms has a picture of a badger. 

California. — A romance was published iu Spain in 1510, in which the 
word California, applied to an imaginary island, for the first time 
occurs. Cortez had read the book, it is supposed, and when he sailed 
along the west coast of Mexico, in 1535, he called the country Califor- 
nia. It has been suggested that the root of the word is Arabic, mean- 
ing caliph. California is known as the Golden State, it being the most 
important gold-producing region in the world. 

Minnesota. — The name is from two Indian words, signifying sky-colored 
water or cloudy water. The familiar appellation of Minnesota is the 
North Star State. On its seal are the words L'etoile du Nord, the Star 
of the North. 

Oregon. — The name, says Trumbull, "comes from an Indian language, 
with which the traveler Carver had been for many years familiar, 
and it is the accurate translation into that language of the name by 
which, as Carver had reason for believing, the ' Great River of the 
West' was designated by the tribes that lived near it." Owing to a 
peculiarity of tlie climate of Oregon, characterized by dry months in 
the summer and early autumn, and excessive rain in the winter, the 
State, and more particularly that portion lying west of the Cascade 
mountains, has been called the Web-foot Country ; its inhabitants are 
called Weh-foots. 

Kansas. — An Indian word, signifying smoky water. The name Garden 
of the West is often given to this State, but it is also given to Illinois 
and otlier Western States tliat are noted for their productiveness. 

West Virginia. — Th(maiue Virginia, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
was applied to all the region which the English claimed in the new 
world, (see p. 40). West-Virginia, because of its grand mountain 
scenery, is sometimes called the Switzerland of America. The term is 
also occasionally applied to New Hampshire. 

Nevada, — This State was named frona the mountain range on the west of 



The States. 315 



it, called the Sierra Nevada. The two words Sierra Nevada are 
Spanish, the former meaning serrated or saw-toothed, the latter, 
snowy. When applied to a mountain they signify a serrated, snowy 
mountain. 

Nebraska. — The word is of Indian origin, signifying shallow water. It 
was first applied to the Platte river, which runs through the State. 

Colorado. — This word is Spanish, and means red or ruddy. Colorado is 
familiarly called the Centennial State (see p. 300), 



316 



Presidents, Vice- Presidents, and States. 



PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



No. 
1 



George Washington , 
Joliu Adams 

Tliomas Jefferson 



James Madison.. 

James Monroe.. . 
Joliu Q. Adams.. 

Andrew Jaclcson. 



Inaugurated. 



Virginia April 30, 1789. 

Massachusetts March 4, ITU".. 



Virginia March 4, 1801.. 



Virginia 

Virginia 

Ma.ssachusetts 

Tennessee 



Martin Van Huren 

William H. Harrison*. 

John Tyler 

James K. Pollc Tennessee 

Zachary Taylor* I Louisiana 



New York. 

Ohio 

Virginia. 



^acUary laylor" L,ouisiana 

Millard Fillmore 'New York 

Franklin Pierce New Hampshire 

James Uuclianan 

Abraham Lincoln* 

Andrew Johnson 

Ulysses S. Grant 

Rutherford B. Hayes. . 



March 4, 1809. . 



March 4, 
March 4, 



1S1-. 
18i5. 



March 4, 182'.!.. . | 



Pennsylvania 

Illinois 

Tennessee 

Illinois 

Ohio 



.March 4, 
March 4. 
April G, 
March 4, 
March 5, 
July 10, 
Marcli 4 , 
March 4, 

March 4, 

April 15, 

March 4, 

March 5, 



1837. 
1811. 
1S41. 
1845. 
184'J. 
1850. 
1^5:3. 
1857. 
1861. 
1865. 
1869. 
1877. 



VlCE-PltESIDZST8. 

John Adams. 
Thomas Jefferson. 
Aaron IJurr. 
(icor^re Clinton.* 
(Jeorge Clinton. 
Elhridge Gerry.* 
Daniel D. Tompkins. 
John C. Calhoun. 
John C. Calhoun.t 
.Martin Van Buren. 
Kichard M. Johnson. 
John Tyler. 

. . George M. Dallas. 
.. .Millard Fillmore. 

'.'. William R. King.* 
.. John C. Hreckinridge. 

\ llannil.a; Hainlin. 

(Andrew Johnson. 

'j Schuyler Colfax. 
(Henry Wilson.* 
..William A.Wheeler. 



SETTLEMENT AND ADMISSION OF THE STATES. 



Virginia 

New York 

Massachusetts 

New Hampshire. 

Connecticut 

Maryland 

Rhode Island 

Delaware , 

North Carolina. . , 

New Jersey 

South Carolina... 

Pennsylvania 

Georgia 

. Vermont 

Kentucky 

Tennesse-e 

Ohio 

Louisiana 

Indiana 

Mississippi 

Illinois 

Alaliama. ; 

Maine 

Missouri 

Arkai.sas 

Michigan 

Florida 

Texas 

Iowa 

Wisconsin 

California 

Minnesota 

Oregon 

Kansas 

West Virginia 

Nevada 

Nebraska 

Colorado 



1607 
1G14 
1620 
WiZ 
IG-B 
16:i4 

um 
icas 

1650 
1664 
1670 
1682 
17;» 
l?2-t 
1775 
1757 
1788 
16'Jit 
17-:i0 
1716 
1082 
1711 
16i5 
1764 
16S5 
1670 
15tj5 
1692 
WJS 
1669 
1769 

is-ie 

1811 



Where. 



By whom. 



Jamestown English. 

New York Dutch... 

Plymouth English. 

Little Harbor.... English. 

Windsor 1 English. 

Mary's lEnglish. 



1774 
1850 



I'rovidciice English 

Wilniiiigton Swedes 

Chowan Kiver... English 

Elizabeth Dutch 

Ashley Uiver English 

Philadelphia English 

Savannah Englisli 

Fort Diimmer.... English 

Kooncslioro English 

Fort London English 

Marietta English 

Iberville French 

Vinceimcs French 

Natchez French 

Kaskaskia French 

Mobile French 

Bristol French 

St. Louis French 

Ark.ansas Post.. . I French 

Detroit [French 

l^t. Augustine t Spaniards 

San Antonio 'Si)aniards 

Burlington English 

Green Hay ' French 

San Diego ."Spaniards 

St. Paul Americans 

Astoria Americans 

.\niericans 

Wheeling English 

Genoa lAmericaiiS 



During whose 
Administra- 
tion. 



Washington. 

Jefferson. 
Madison. 

S^ on roe. 

Jackson. 

Tyler. 

Polk. 

Fillmore. 
Buchanan. 

Lincoln. 

.lohnson. 
Grant. 



Died In office. 



t Resigned. 



APPENDIX. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



A Declaration hy the Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assemMed, July 4, 1Y76. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for 
one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected 
them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, 
the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of 
nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of man- 
kind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them 
to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien- 
able rights ; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted 
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned ; that, whenever any form of goveinraent becomes destructive 
of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, 
and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, 
indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not 
be changed for hght and transient causes ; and, accordingly, all 
experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, 
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the 
forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces 
a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, 
it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new 
guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suffer- 
ance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains 
them to alter their former .systems of government. The history of 
the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries 
and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an 
absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be sub- 
mitted to a candid world :— 



Declaration of Independence. 



He has refused liis assent to laws the most wholesome and neces- 
sary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and 
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his 
assent should be obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly 
neglected to attend to them. 

He has refu.'ied to pass other laws for the accommodation of large 
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of 
representation in the legislature ; a right inestimable to them, and 
formidable to tyrants only. 

He has culled together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom- 
fortable, and distant from tlie depository of their public records, for 
the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his 
measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, 
with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause 
others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of 
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; 
the state remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the danger of 
invasion from without, and convulsions within. 

lie has endeavored to prevent the population of these states ; for 
that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, 
refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hitlier, and 
raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his 
assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

lie has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of 
their offices, and the amount and payment of tiieir salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swai nis 
of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without 
the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior 
to, the civil power. 

He lias combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign 
to our constitutiou, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his 
assent to their acts of pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : 

for protecting them by a mock trial, from punishment, for any 



Declaration of Independence. 



murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 
states : 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury : 

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences : 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarg- 
ing its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instru- 
ment for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, 
and altering, fundamentally, the powers of our governments : 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves 
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his pro- 
tection, and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, 
and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercena- 
ries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already 
begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled 
in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy tlie head of a civil- 
lized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high 
seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners 
of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has en- 
deavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless 
Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished 
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, 
in the most humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been 
answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is 
thus marked by every act which may defile a tyrant, is unfit to be 
the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. 
We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their 
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We 
have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and 
settlement here, We liave appealed to their native justice and mag- 



Declaration of Independence. 



nanirnity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common 
kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably inter- 
rupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been 
deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, 
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold 
them, as wc hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, 
friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, 
in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the 
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by 
the authority of the good people of these colonies, solenmly publish 
and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent states; that they are absolved from all alle- 
giance to tha British crown, and that all political connection between 
them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- 
solved ; and that, as free and independent states, they have full 
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 
merce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states 
may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, with a 
firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually 
pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

New Hampsliire.— Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew 
Thornton. Massacliusetts Bay. -Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
Robert Treat Paine, Elbi-idge Gurry. Rhode Island.— Stephen 
U()l)kins, William Ellery. Connecticut.— Roger Sherman, Samuel 
Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. New Ifork.- 
Williani Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris. 
New Jersey.— Richard Stockton, John 'NMtlurspoon, Francis Hop- 
kinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark. Pennsylvania.-Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymcr, 
James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross. Dela- 
ware.-Cyesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas M'Kean. Maryland. 
—Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll, of 
CarroUton. VIrsinia.-George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomns 
Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, jun., Francis Light- 
foot Lee, Carter Braxton. North rarolina.-William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, John Penn. South C'arolina.-Edward Rutledge, 
Thomas Heyward, jun., Thomas Lvnch, jun., Arthur Middleton. 
Georgia.— Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton. 

This (Icclaiation was signed on the day of its adoption, by John Ilancock, the 
president of Congress, and thus it went forth to the world. By order of Congress 
it was engrossed and also signed hy the above-named members. 



THE CONSTITUTION 

OF 

THE UnXEI) STATES OF AMERICA. 



1. Origin of the Constitution. — When the Revolutionary struggle 
commenced, there were three forms of colonial government in force 
among the colonies." (See the History, p. 113.) 

On the 11th of June, 1776, Congress resolved that a committee 
should be appointed to prepare a form of confederation, to be entered 
into by the colonies. On the 12th of July following, this committee, 
consisting of one from each state, reported a draft of Articles of Con- 
federation. The Eeport was considered and debated from time to 
time until the 15th of November, 1777, when, with some amendments, 
it was adopted. These Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1778 
by all the states except Delaware and Maryland, and by Delaware in 
1779; but, in consequence of the delay on the part of Maryland, they 
did not go into effect until the 1st of March, 1781, the day on which 
they were signed by the delegates from that state. 

2, It was soon found that the Articles of Confederation were not 
adequate to the wants of the government. They were deficient as re- 
gards the regulation of commerce, the settling of controversies be- 
tween the states, the making of treaties with foreign nations, and 
especially so in not conferring the necessaiy power upon Congress to 
liquidate the debts incurred during the war. Consequently, a conven- 
tion of delegates from all the states, except Rhode Island, met at 
Philadelphia, in May, 1787, for the purpose of revising the Articles 
of Confederation; but it was thought best by a majority of the 
delegates to adopt an entirely new form of government, instead of 
making any attempts to amend the defective one then in existence. 
Accordingly, on the 17th of September, 1787, after four months' 
deliberation, the present Constitution, — except some changes which 
have since been made, — was adopted by the Convention. (See the 
History, p. 178.) The new Constitution was submitted to the people, 
who, in the newspapers, legislative halls, and elsewhere, discussed it 
with earnestness and thoroughness ; the ratification of nine states 
being requisite before it could go into effect. It met with considerable 
opposition; but after it had been adopted by all the states, except 
North Carolina and Rhode Island, it went into operation March 4th, 
1789. 



Constitution of the United States. 



The Constitution was Adopted as follows by 



Delaware Dec. 7,1787 

Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787 

New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787 

Georgia Jan. 2,1788 

Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788 

Massachusetts Feb. 6, 1788 



Maryland April 28, 1788 

South Carolina May 2.S, 1788 

New Hampshire June 21, 1788 

Virijiuia June 2(), 1788 

New York July 2U, 1788 

North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789 



Rhode Island May 29, 1790. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 

Prea.mble.' 



We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, e.stabh.sh ju.stice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless- 
ings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish 
this Constitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. The Legislative Department. 
Section I. Congress in General. 
All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress 
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of 
Representatives. 

Section IL House of Representatives. 

\st Clause. The House of Representatives shall be composed of 
members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, 
and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications re(iuisite 
for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 

2fZ Clmise. No person shall be a representative who shall not have 
attained to the age of twenty-five yenrs, and been seven years a citizen 
of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an in- 
habitant of th;it state in which he .shall be chosen. 

3cZ Clause. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned 
among the several states which may be included within this Union, 
according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by 
adding to the whole number of free persons, including those botmd to 
service for a term of years, and, excluding Indians not taxed, three- 

' The object of the Preamble is to state the purposes of the Constitation. Three gen- 
eral departmenis ol' covernmeut arc established under the Constitnlion, viz. : the legis- 
lative, thcpowrT that cnacis the laws ; the executive, the power that enforces ,he laws ; 
and the judicial, the power that interprets the laws, 



Constitution of the United States. 7 

fifths of all other persons.' (See Article XIV. of the Amendments.) 
The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the 
first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every 
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law 
direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 
thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative ; 
and untii such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire 
shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New 
Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Vir- 
ginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4#7i Clause. When vacancies happen in the representation from any 
state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to 
fill such vacancies. 

5?/i Clause. The House of Representatives shall choose their 
speaker and other officers ; and shall have the sole power of im- 
peachment.'^ 

Section III. Tlte Senate. 

1st Clause. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of 
two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six 
years ; and each senator shall have one vote. 

2fZ Clause. Immediately after they shall be assembled in conse- 
quence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may 
be into three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall 
be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at 
the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expira- 
tion of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second 
j^ear; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during 
the recess of the legislature of anj' state, the executive thereof may 
make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legisla- 
ture, which shall then fill such vacancies.' 

Zd Clause. No person shall be a senator who shall not have at- 
tained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of 
that state for which he shall be chosen. 

' By the term " all other persons" was meant slaves. 

" An impeaclmirnt is an accusation against a public officer, charging him with mis- 
conduct in the iliscliarge of his official duties. 

3 Ascnat(ii"s lull tonn consists of six years ; he is chosen liy the legislature of his 
State. A representHtivc's full tunu is only two years ; he is elected by the people of 
his congressional district. 



Constitution of the United States. 



4:th Clause. The vice-president of the United States shall be presi- 
dent of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally 
divided. 

5th Clause. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a 
president pro tempore," in the absence of the vice-president, or when 
he shall exercise the office of president of the United States. 

Qth Clause. The Senate shall have the sole power lo try all im- 
peachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall all be on oath 
or affirmation. "When the president of the United States is tried, the 
chief-justice shall preside ; and no person shall be convicted without 
the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. 

1th Chnise. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend 
fui ther than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and 
enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States ; 
but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to in- 
dictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. 

Section IV. Both Houses. 

l.'it Clavse. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for 
senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the 
legislature thereof ; but the Congress may at any time by law make 
or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators.' 

2cl Clause. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, 
and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless 
they shall by law appoint a different day. 

Section V. The Hotises Separately. 

\st Clause. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, 
and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall 
constitute a quorum" to do business ; but a smaller number may ad 
journ from day to day, and may be authorized to conqjcl the attend- 
ance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as 
each house may provide. 

2d Clause. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, 

1 A "president pro tempore" is one chosen only for tlie time being. 

■•' An act of CoiiKress VLquircs the legiHlature of each state, which shall be choser next 
preceding the expiration ot any senatorial term, on the second Tuesday after its lirst ineet- 
ing, to elect a successor, each house nominating viva roce, and then coiiveiiing in joint 
assembly to compare nominations. In ease of agreement, such person shall lit declared 
duly elected ; and if they do not agree, then balloting tocontinne from day todu:);, at 12 
M. duriny the session, until choice has been made. Vacancies arc to be filled in like 
manner. 

2 By a quorum is meant a sufficient number to do business. Usually a majority is a 
quorum. 



Oonstitution of the United States. 9 

punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence 
of two-thirds, expel a member. 

M Clause. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and 
from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in 
their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the mem- 
bers of either house on any question, shall, at the def^iie of one-filth of 
those present, be entered on tlie journal. 

Uh Clause. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, 
without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, 
nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be 
sitting. 

Section YII. Privileges and DisaMlities of Members. 

1st Clnust\ The senators and representatives shall receive a compen- 
sation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the 
treasury of the United States.' They shall, in all cases, except treason, 
felony, and breach of the peace, " be privileged from arrest during their 
attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and 
returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either 
house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

%1 Clause. No senator or representative shall, during the time for 
which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the author- 
tiy of the United States, which shall have been created, or the enKjlu- 
ments whereof shall have been increased during such time ; and no per- 
son holding any office under the United States shall be a member of 
either house during his continuance in office. 

Section VII. Mode of Passing Laws. 

1st Clause. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House 
of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amend- 
ments as on other bills. 

2(Z Clause. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented 
to the president of the United States ; if he approve he shall sign it, 
but if not he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which 

' The members of Congress are componi=ated for their services by the general sovern- 
nicnt, out of the treasury of Ihe United States. Each member receives SriOUO |»er au- 
imin, and mileage at the "rate of twenty cents a mile. For each day's absence, except 
when caused by sickness, $8 per diem is deducted from the salary. The speaker of the 
House of Representatives receives double the salary of a member. 

- Treason is defined by the Constitulion (see Article III., Section III. p. 18). Felony 
is a crime punishable with death. A breach of the peace is a violation of the public 
order. 



10 GonstUidion of the United States. 

it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their 
journal, and proceed to reconsider it.' If after such reconsideration 
two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, to- 
gether with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall like- 
wise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it 
shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses 
shall be dtterrained by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons 
voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each 
house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the president 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented 
to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, 
unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which 
case it shall not be a law. 

Zd Clause. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concur- 
rence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary 
(except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the presi- 
dent of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall 
be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by 
two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to 
the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.^ 

Section VIII. Poirers granted to Congress. 

The Congress shall have power — 

\st Clause. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to 
pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare 
of the United States ; bat all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uni- 
form throughout the United States.^ 

2<Z Clause. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

Zd Clause. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among 
the several state-, and with the Indian tribes; 

4<A Clause. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization,'' and uni- 

1 The president's act of objecting to a bill is called a veto. This, the veto power, was 
given to the president, to enable him to protect the executive department against the 
encroachments of the legislative. It was also given with a view to greater security 
against tlie enactment of improper laws. 

^ If it were not for this provision, Congress might pass laws, calling them orders or 
resolutions, and thus cvad 'the president's veto. 

2 Ta.\es are contributions of money exacied by government from individuals for pub- 
lic purposes. They are of two kinds : direct, when tliey are laid on the person or 
property of individuals; and indirect, when laid on the importation, cxportaiion, and 
consumption of goods. Duties are taxes on the importation or exporlalion of goods. 
Imi)orlsare taxes on goods im])orted. Excises are taxes on goods produced or manu- 
factured in the country. 

■* Till' act by which a foreigner becomes a citizen of the United States is called nat- 
uralization. A person must reside in this country five years before he can be natural- 
ized and thus be entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship. 



Constitution of the United States. 11 

form laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United 
States ; 

5tli Clause. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures ; 

Qth Clause. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the 
securities and current coin of the United States ; 

'7th Clause. To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 

%th Clause. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by 
securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right 
to their respective writings and discoveries ;' 

Qth Clause. To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court ; 

loth Clause. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed 
on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations ;'- 

llth Clause. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal,^ 
and make rules concerning captures on land and water ; 

llth Clause. To raise and support armies ; but no appropriation of 
money to that use shall be for a longer terra than two years; 

IMh Clause. To provide and maintain a navy ; 

lAth Clause. To make rules for the government and regulation of 
the land and naval forces ; 

15th Clause. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ; 

l&th Clause. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining 
the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed 
in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively 
the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the mili- 
tia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress ; 

VHth Clause. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatso- 
ever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by 
cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become 
the seat of the government of the United States ; and to exercise like 
authorit}' over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of 
the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, maga- 



I This exclueive ri9;ht extended to authors is called a copy-right It is granted for a 
period of twenty-eight years, after which it may be renewed for the further period of 
fourteen years. The inventor of a niacliinc is entitled to the exclusive right, called a 
patent right, of manufacturing it for a period of fourteen years. At the end of the four- 
teen years the Commissioner of Patents is authorized to extend the right for the fur- 
ther period of seven years. 

- Piracy is deined as " robbery on the high seas," the "high seas" being all the 
waters of the ocean beyond the boundaries of low-water mark. 

3 '• T,etters of marque and reprisal" are commissions, granted by the government to 
individuals, authorizing them to prey upon the commerce of another nation. 



12 Constitution of the United States. 

zines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings;' — and 

18^A Clause. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper 
for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or 
in any department or officer thereof. 

Section IX. Powers denied to the United States. 

\st Clause. The migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
hibited by the Congress prior t) the year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not 
exceeding ten dollars for each person.^ 

2d Clause. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 
suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public 
safety may require it.^ 

Sd Clause. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be 
passed.* 

4:th Clause. No capitation,^ or other direct tax shall be laid, unless 
in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefoie directed to be 
taken. 

5th Clause. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from 
any state. 

Qth Clause. No preference shall be given by any regulation of com- 
merce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another ; nor 
shall vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or 
pay duties in another. 

7th Clause. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in con- 
sequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and 
account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be 
published from time to time. 

' In 17S8 Maryland ceded 60 pquarc miles of hnid. and next year Virsii'ia ceded 40 
square miles, to ilie I'liited States as a site lor tlie national capital. This made a square 
or 10 miles, or 100 square miles, 00 sqnare miles beii'.t; on the east side of the Potomac 
and 4(1 on the west, which was named the District of Columbia, in honoi- of Christopher 
Columt)ns. Thetraet on the \'irt,'inia side of the river was retrocedcd to that State in 
1840. conse(iuently theDistriet now consists of the territory ceded hy Maryland in 1788. 

- By the term " such person" was meant slaves. Tl'.e jjreat object of the clau>e was 
to enable Contrress to putan end to the importation of slaves into the United States, 
and this was accomi)lished by a law which went into effect on the 1st of January, 1808. 

3 " A writ of habeas corpus" is a written command from a juilf,'e or other magistrate, 
directiii'? that the body of a certain i)erson shall be broiif^dit' before him. Its object is to 
provide a means of redress for all manner of illegal im()risonment. 

■• A bill of attainder is an act of the legislature intlictin<r the i)unishment of death, 
without trial, ui)on persons sup]>osed to befruilly of hii;h crime-. An e.\ post facto law 
is a law which renders an act puidshable which was not punishable at the time of its 
commission. 

* A cajtitation tax is a direct tax upon individuals. 



Constitution of the United States. 13 

Sth Clause. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United 
States ; and no person holding any oflBce of profit or trust under them 
shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolu- 
ment, oflBce, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or 
foreign state. 

Section X. Powers denied to the States. 

\st Clause. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or con- 
federation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit 
bills of credit;' make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in 
payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, 
or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of 
nobility. 

2d. Clause. No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay 
any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be ab- 
solutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; ^ and the net 
produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or ex- 
ports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; and 
all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Con- 
gress. 

Zd Clause. No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any 
duty of tonnage,' keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter 
into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign 
power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such immi- 
nent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE n. The Executive Department. 
Section I. President and Vice-President. 

\st Clause. The executive power shall be vested in a president of 
the United States of America. He shall hold his oflBce during the 
term of four years, and, together with the vice-president, chosen for 
the same term, be elected as follows.^ 

2tZ Clause. Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legisla- 



- Bills of credit, within the meaning of the Constitution, are bills intended to circu- 
late as monej' among the people. 

^ Inspection laws require certain articles of commerce to bo examined by oiBccrs 
called insipector.'?. 

3 A tax hild on vessels at a certain rate per ton is called a dnty of tonnage. 

^ It will be seen that the Constitution does not limit the number of terms for which a 
president may be re-elected. Washington, at tlie close of his second term, de- 
clined to be a candidate for a third trrni ; and this example has been a precedent by 
which sul)sequent iirusidents have been guided. The president and vice-president are 
not chosen by the people directly, but by\-lectors. 



14 Constitution of the United States. 

ture thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole num- 
ber of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled 
in the Congress ; but no senator or representative, or person holding 
an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed 
an elector. 

THE TWELFTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION.' 

1st Clause. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and 
vote by ballot for president and vice-president, one of whom, at least, 
shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they 
shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in 
distinct ballots the person voted for as vice president, and they shall 
make distinct lists of all persons voted for as president, and of all 
persons voted for as vice-president, and of the number of votes for 
each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to 
the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the presi- 
dent of the Senate; the president of the Senate shall, in presence of 
the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and 
the votes shall then be counted, the person having the greatest num- 
ber of votes for president, shall be the president, if such number be a 
majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person 
have such majority, then from the persons having the highest num- 
bers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as president, 
the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the 
president. But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by 
states, the representation from each state having one vote ; a quorum 
for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two- 
thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary 
to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
president whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before 
the fourth day of March next following, then the vice-president shall 
act as president, as in the case of the death or other constitutional 
disability of the president. 

2d Clause. The person having the greatest number of votes as vice 
president, shall be the vice president, if such number be a majority of 
the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a 

1 The original clause of the Constitution, prescribin>: tiie mode in which the president 
and vice-president were to be elected, was repealed in 1S(I4, and the twelfth amendment 
(as tfiven above) was adopted in its jilace. By the original clause, the electors voted for 
two i)erson8 without naniins,' tlieir clioice for the hi^'liei- position, " th" person having 
the -ireatest number of votes" beini? declared president, and the ne.\t, vice-president. 
Washington, John Adams, and Jeffersi>u (for first term) were bo elected. 



Constitution of the United States. 15 

majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate 
shall choose the vice-president; a quorum for the purpose shall con- 
sist of two-thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of 
the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 

Zd Clause. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of 
president shall be eligible to that of vice-president of the United 
States. 

4ith Clanse. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the 
electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes, which day 
shall be the same throughout the United States.' 

5th Clause. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of 
the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall 
be eligible to the office of president ; neither shall any person be eligi- 
ble to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five 
years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 

Qth Clause. In case of the removal of the president from office, or 
of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and 
duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the vice-president; 
and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, 
resignation, or inability, both of the president and vice-president, de- 
claring what officer shall then act as president, and such officer shall 
act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a president shall 
be elected. - 

1th Clause. The president shall, at stated times, receive for his 
services a compensation, wliich shall neither be increased nor 
diminished during the period for which he shall Iiave been elected, 
and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument 
from the United States, or any of them." 

Sth Clause. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he 
shall take the following oath or affirmation :^ 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute 
the office of president of the United States, and will, to the best of 



' In the event of there being no president of the United States, or vice-president, asi 
stated above, the president of the Senate, pro teinpniv. sliall act as president ; and. in 
tile event of there being no president of the Senate, tlie Spealier of the House of Repre- 
sentatives shall act as iiresident. 

- The electors are chosen by the people on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in 
the last November of each presidential term ; and the electors meet to give tlieir votes 
on the first Wednesd.ay in tlie next succeeding Decemlier, in then- respective states, at 
the places— usually the cajiital— api)ointed by thi' state le^islatiires. 

2 The president's salary is ig.'idjHK) a year, tn^'-eilier with the use of the presidential 
mansion and its furniture". The vice-president's salary is Sf^.OOtl a year. The pre.-ident 
pro tern, of the Senate receives the same compensation as the vice-president. 



16 Constitution of the United States. 

my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States." 

Section II. Poicers of the President. 

\st Clause. The president shall be commander-in-chief of tiie army 
and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several 
states, when called into the actual service of the United States; 
he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal oflBcer in 
each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to 
the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to 
grant reprieves and parduns for offences against the United States, 
except in cases of impeachment. 

2d Clause. He shall have power, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the 
senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, 
other public ministers and consuls, judges of the supreme court, 
and all other officers of tlie United States, whose appointments are 
not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established 
by law, but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such 
inferior officers, as they think pioper, in the president alone, in the 
courts of law, or in the heads of departments.' 

Zd Clame. The president shall have power to fill up all vacances 
that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting com- 
missions, which shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Section III. Duties of the President. 
He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of 
the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such 
measures as he shall judge necessaiy and expedient;' he ma}^ on 
extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, . 
and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the 
time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to sucli time as he shall 
thiuk proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public minis- 



i Six executive departnicntis. namely : Of State, of the Navy, of War, of the Treas- 
ury, of the Post-oflice, and of tlie Interior, to aid the president in the discharfre of his 
duty, have been established by Con<;ress. The heads of ttiese deiiartnients. as well as 
the atlorney-jieneral, are appointed i)y the president with theadvice and consent of the 
Senate ; and the seven persons so appointed constitute the president's eal)iuet. 

2 It is the custom for tlie president to inform Congress of the state of Ilie Union and 
milke recommendations, by means of written messasres ; but this was not the custom 
with Washintrton and Jonn Adams. They used to so to Congress and make their 
recommendations by prepared addresses, which they read. Congress is under uu 
obligation whatever to adopt the president's recommendations. 



Constitution of the United States. 17 

ters ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and 
shall commission all the oflBcers of the United States. 

Section IV. Impeachme7it of the President. 
The president, vice-president, and all civil officers of the United 
States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and con- 
viction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misde- 
meanors. 

ARTICLE III. The Judicial Department. 

Section I. The United States Courts. 

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one 
supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may 
from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the 
supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good 
behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a 
compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continu- 
ance in office. ' 

Section II. Jurisdiction of the United States Courts. 

1st Clause. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law 
and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United 
States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their 
authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public minis- 
ters, and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime juris- 
diction ; to controversies to which the United States shall be a 
party ; to controversies between two or more states ; between a 
state and citizens of another state ; between citizens of different 
states ; between citizens of the same state claiming lands under 
grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens 
thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects. 

2tZ Clause. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public minis- 
ters and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the 
supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other 
cases before mentioned, the supreme covirt shall have appellate 
jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and 
under such regulations as the Congress shall make.'' 



1 The supremu court of the United States is composed of one chief-justice, at a salary 
of $10,500 a year, and eight associate justices, eacli of whom has a Hilary of §10,000 a 
year. 

■■^ Orig^inal jurisdiction is thar in wliieh a suit orijiinates or commences. Appellate 
jurisdiction is that in whicU the decision of an Inferior court is taken on appeal. 



18 Constitution of the United States. 

Zd Clause. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeach- 
ment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the state 
where the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not 
committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or 
places as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Section III. Treason. 

Ist Clause. Treason against the United States shall consist only 
in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giv- 
ing them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of trea- 
son unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, 
or on confession in open court. 

'id Clau.te. Tlie Congress shall have power to declare the punish- 
ment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption 
of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.' 

ARTICLE IV. jMiscellaneous Provisions. 
Section T. State Records. 
Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, 
records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Con- 
gress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, 
records, and proceedings shall be jDroved, and the effect thereof. 

Section II. Privileges of Citizens. 

1st Clause. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all priv- 
ileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. 

2(Z Clause. A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or 
other crime, who shall flee from justice, and l)e found in another state, 
shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he 
fled, be delivered up, to be removed to tiie state having jurisdiction of 
the crime. 

Zd Clause. No ])erson held to service or lalior in one state, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of anj'- 
law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but 
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due." 

' Attainder means a etainins, corruption, or rendoring impure : and by corruption of 
blood a person is disabled to'iiiherit land^s from an ancestor, nor can he either retain 
tluwe in his possession or transmit them l)y descent to Lis heirs. They go to the gov- 
ernment. , , . , 

2 The person referred to was a fugitive slave or jierson bound by iiHienlurcs of a))pren- 
ticeship. The " fugitive slave law " passed by Congress during Fillmore's admini.-tra- 



Constitution of the United States. 19 



Section III. New States and Territories. 

\%t Clause. New states may l)e admitted by the Congress into this 
Union ; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the juris- 
diction of any other state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of 
two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legis- 
latures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress. 

Id Clause. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make 
all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other prop- 
erty belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution 
shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, 
or of any particular state. 

Section IV. Guarantees to the States. 

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a re- 
publican form of government, and shall protect each of them against 
invasion ; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive 
(when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. 

AKTICLE V. Powers of Amendment. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the 
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall 
call a convention for proposing amendments, whicli, in either case, 
shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, 
when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourth of the several states, 
or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other 
mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress : provided that 
DO amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand 
eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth 
clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no state, with- 
out its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. Public Debt, Supremacy of the Constitution, Oatb 
OF OffiCE, Religious Test. 
1st Clause. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, 



tionunderautlioiity of this clause was procluctive of mnohexciteiiient in the coiiniry. A! 
the .Moith piililic scniiinciil was asaiiisl it.and it was onlyexeniU'd throuuh lh<' most do- 
U>niiin('di-ttV)rt of the <,'overimu'iil. In Boston the presence of a larije hody .'f soldiers 
and polieenieii was neci'ssary to prevent the jieople from settina; fre.' a tapliired fiisi- 
tivc slave w ho was ahom to be sent Soiitli to his owner. All iliis has been changed by 
the adoption of the last three articles of the amendments to the Coustitiition. (See p.) 



20 Constitution of tlie United States. 

before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the 
United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2(1 Clause. This Constitution, and the "laws of tlie United States 
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of the United Status, shall 
be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every state shall 
be bound thereby, anything in tlie Constitution or laws of any state 
to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3tZ Clause. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and 
the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and 
judicial oflBcers, both of the United States and of the several states. 
shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but 
no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office 
or public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII. Ratification of the Constitution. 
The ratification of the conventions of nine states, shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratify- 
ing the same. 



AMENDMENTS.^ 

PROrOSEn BY CONGRESS, AND RATIFIED BY TUB LEGISLATURES OF TUB SEVERAL 
states, pursuant to tub fifth article of the ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

ARTICLE I. Freedom of ReUgion. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an cstablishincnt of religion, 
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of 
speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- 
ble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

Article II. Right to bear Arms. 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free 
state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be 
infringed. 

' While the constilution was under discussion, and before it liad be<-ii adopted by tlie 
requisite nine stales, it »as generally tH'lii'vcd lliat it did not sufficinitly protect the 
riL'lits of the people. With a view, lliercfore, ofsceiirinir to lotli people and states cer- 
tain ri£;liis hcvond the possibility of ilieir heinir i neroaclicd upon, tlie lirst ten articles 
of llie";inien(rnii'nt< were jiroposed in IVHft. dm n^' li.e tii>l session of the first Congress 
under th<' {Joiistiiuiion, and, haviiie: been ratified by tliiee fourllis ol the states, were 
declared adopted in liy*. 



Constitution of tJie United States, 21 

Article III. Quartering Soldiers on Citizens. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house with- 
out the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner 
to be prescribed by law. 

Article IV. Search Warrants. 
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable 
cause, supported by oath or afHrmation, and particularly describing 
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

Article V. Trial for Crime. 
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise in- 
famous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand 
jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger ; 
nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice 
put in jeopardy of life or limb ;' nor shall be compelled in any 
criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of 
life, liberty, or property without due process of law ; nor shall pri- 
vate property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Article VI. Rights of accused Persons. 

In all ciiminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to 
a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and dis- 
trict wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district 
shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed 
of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with 
the witnesses against him ; to have compulsoiy process for obtain- 
ing witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for 
his defence. 

Article VII. Suits at Common Law. 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall ex- 
ceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jui-y shall be preserved, 
and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any 
court of the United States than according to the rules of the com- 
mon law. 

1 No person can be a second time tried for an offpnce of whicli he has been legally 
acquitted. 



22 Constitution of the United States. 

Article VTII. Excessive Bail. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, 
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

Article IX. liifjhts Retained ly the People. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not 
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people 

AcTiCLE X. Reserved Rir/Iits of the States. 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Consti- 
tution, nor i)roliihited by it to the states, are reserved to the states 
respectively, or to the people. 

Article XI.' 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed 
to extend to any suit, in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted 
against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by 
citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 

Article XI II." Slavery. 

Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a 
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been dulv con- 
victed, shall exist within the United Slates, or any place subject to 
their jurisdiction. 

Sec. II. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appro- 
priate legislation.^ 

Article XIV. 

Section I. All persons born or naturah'zed in the United States, and 
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, arc citizens of the United States and 
of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any 
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, 
or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within 
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Sec. II. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several 

' The eleventh amendment was proposed by Congress in 1794, and declared adopted 

in ITflS. 

- For the twelfth amendment, see the Appendix, p. 14. 
" Sec the History, p. ;96. 



Constitution of the United States. 23 

states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole num- 
ber of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when 
the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for presi- 
dent and vice-president of the United States, representatives in Con- 
gress, the executive and judical officers of a state, or the members of 
the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of 
such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United 
States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or 
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the 
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the 
whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state. 

Sec. III. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, 
or elector of president and vice-president, or hold any office, civil or 
military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having 
previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of 
the United States, or as a member of any state Legislature, or as an 
executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution 
of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion 
against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But 
Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such 
disability. 

Sec. IV. The validity of the public debt of the United States, au- 
thorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and 
bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not 
be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall as- 
sume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or 
rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or eman- 
cipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall 
be held illegal and void. 

Sec. V. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate 
legislation, the provisions of this article. 

Article XV. 

Sec. I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be 
denied or abridged by the United States, or bj^ any state, on account, 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Sec. II. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation.' 

' See the History, p. 298. 



INDEX. 



Abercromby 108 

Acadia 41,101,105 

Adams, John.139, 146. ISi, 183, 191, 223, 304 

Adams, J. Q 222 

Adams, Samuel 128, 132 

Alabama 35, 220, 256 

Alabama Claims 298 

Alabama, privateer 264, 289, 298 

Alarcon 37 

Alaska 297 

Albemarle Colony 98 

Alexandria, Va 261 

Algiers 216 

Alien and Sedition Laws 192 

Allen, Ethan 135, 141 

American party 253, 255 

Amerigo Vespucci 30 

Anderson, Maj 256, 258 

Andre, Ma.i 169 

Andres. Sir Edmund 73, 86 

Annapolis, Md 177, 178 

Annapolis, N. S 41, 101 

Antietani, Battle of 273 

Anti-Federalist 179 

Appomattox Court House 293 

Argall 56 

Arkansas 45, 229, 261 

Post, Capture of 274 

Arnold, Benedict.141, 157, 159, 168, 172, 174 

Articles of Ccnifederation 178 

Astorj John Jacob 257 

Astoria, Oregon 257 

Atlanta, Capture of 285 

Atlantic Cable 301 

Aztecs 241 

Bacon's Rebellion .59 

Bainbridge, Coin 207 

Balboa 31 

Baltimore, city 112,213 

Baltimore, Lord 87, 90 

Bancroft, George 303 

Bank of United States 184, 227 

Banks, Gen 272, 281, 284 

Barbary States 198 

Baum, Col 158 

Beauregard, Gen. 259, 262, 266 

Bell, Jolin 255 

Belmont, Battle of 263 

Bennington, Battle of 158 

Berkelev, Sir William 59, 86 

Black Hawk's War 230 

Bon Homme Richard 166 

Boone, Daniel 190 

Boston 18, 6S, 106, 115, 127, 135, 298 

Massacre 127 

Tea Party 128 

Braddock, Gen 106 

Bradford, Gov 65, 66, 67 

Brag-, Gen 239, 282 

Brandywine, Battle of HiS 

Breckenridge, John C 2.55 

Breed's Hill 136 



Brewster, Elder 61 

Brooklyn 147 

Brown, Gen. Jacob 212 

Brown, John 253 

Bryant,W. C 303 

Buchanan, James 253 

Buena Vista 2.39 

Bull Run, Battle of 261, 272 

Bunker Hill 135, 136, 2:i2 

Burgoyne, Gen 156 

Burnside, Gen 274, 283 

Burr, Aaron 141, 195, 200 

Butler, Gen. B. F 268, 288 

Cabots 30, 60, 103 

Cabrillo 37 

Calhoun, John C 224, 226, 228, 247 

California 239, 243, 247 

Calvert, Sir George 87 

Camden, S. C 167,173 

Canada 140 

Canals 226 

Cape Charles 152 

Cod 64, 115 

Henry 52 

Carolina 40, 96, 113 

Carteret, Sir George 86 

Cartier 41 

Carver, Gov 64 

Cedar Creek, Battle of. 288 

Mountain, Battle of 272 

Centennial Celebration 300 

Cerro Gordo, Battle of 240 

Chambersburg 273, 277, 288 

Champlain 41 

Chancellorsville 277 

Charleston. . .99, 113, 143, 166, 2.56, 259, 290 

Charlestown 68, 132, 137 

Chattanooga 282 

Chemung, Battle of 164 

Cherry Valley, Massacre of. 164 

Chesapeake and Leopard 204 

and Shannon 208 

Chicago 44, 298, 301 

C'hickahominy River 271 

Chickamauga 282 

Chippewa, Battle of 212 

Christian Commission 279 

Cincinnati 301 

Civil War 2.56 

Clarendon Countv Colony 98 

Clayborne's Rebellion 88, 90 

Clark, Gen. G. R 104 

Clay, Henry 222, 229, 237, 247 

Clinton, De Witt 177 

Clinton, Gen 142, 162, 166 

Cold Harbor, Battle of 287 

Colonial Congress of 1765 126 

Colleges 116 

Colorado 300 

Columbia River 257 

Columbia, S. C 2i)0 

Columbus 15, 18, 19,31 



26 



Index. 



Compromispf! 220, 230. 247 

Concord 131, i;i4 

Confederacy, Formation of ao(5 

Confederation, Articles of 250 

Congress, Continental 130, 13i», 177 

Connecticut 09,113 

Reserve 15)5 

Constitution of the United States 178 

and Guerriere 207 

Continental Money 118 

Cooper, J. F 302 

Cooper, Peter 233 

Corinth. Miss 206, 274 

Cornwallis. Lord 149, 108, 174, 175 

Coronado 37 

Cortez 34. 37 

Cotton 114, 1S8, 224 

Cotton-gin 114.187,302 

Cowpens, Uattle of 173 

Crawford, VV. H 222 

Creek War 211 

Crown Point 107, 150 

Cuba 22 

Davenport. John 70 

Davis, Jefferson 2.50, 259, 291 

Deane, Silas 1.54 

Dearborn, (ien 212 

De Ayllon 34 

Decatur. Lieut 199, 207, 217 

Declaration of Independence 145 

De Uania, Vasco 19 

De Grasse. 174 

DeKalb 108 

Delaware 91, 113 

Delaware, Lord 50 

De Leon, Ponee 32 

De Nar vaez 34 

De Soto .34 

D'Estaing 102,105 

Detroit 111,200 

Dieskau 107 

Dinwiddle, Robert, Gov 103 

Dix, John A 257 

Dorr's Rebellion 235 

Douglas, Stephen A 2.55 

Dover, N. II 07 

Draft Riot 2Hl 

Drake, Sir Francis 37 

" Dred Scott " Decision 2.54 

Du (iucsne 104 

Dutch Explorations 47, 80 

Early, (ieu 288 

Eaton, Tlu'opliilus . . 70 

Education 110 

Elizabeth. Queen .38 

Elizabetlitowii (Elizabeth^ N.J 87 

Eni;incip;ition Proclamation 270 

Emliargo . 205 

Eudicott. John 08 

Englisli Explorations. 29-00 

Erie, Pa 10 

Eutaw Springs, Battle of 173 

Everett, Edward 227 

Fair Oaks, Battle of 271 

Faiieuil Hall 129 

Farragut, Admiral 2(50, 289 

Federalist i)arty 179 

Field, Cyrus W .301 

Fillmore, Millard 247 

Fitcb, John 201 



Five Forks, Battle of. 291 

Flag, Adoption of the National 158 

Florida 33, 47, 214, 220, 244, 2.56 

Floyd, CJen 205 

Foote. Admiral 205. 2G0 

Fort Donelson 205 

Du t^nesne 107 

Edward 107, 1.58 

Fisher 290 

Henry 205 

Lee 149 

McAllister 287 

McHenry 214 

Mems 211 

Moultrie 143,2.56 

Pickens 2.57 

Pillow 284 

Pitt 108, 111 

Pulaski 207 

Schuyler 1.50 

Stanwix 156 

Sumter 256, 257, 290 

Washington 149 

William Henry 107 

Fortress Monroe 201, 271 

Fox, (ieorge 74 

France 100, 101 . 192, 190 

Franklin, Benjamin. 

115, 120, 140, 154, KK), 10.5, 179, 231 

Fredericksburg 274 

Free Soil party 245 

Fremont, John C 239, 25.3, 203, 272 

French Explorations 41-90 

French and Indian War 102, 125 

Fugil i\ e Slave law 247 

Fulton. Robert 201 

Gadsden Purchase 243 

Gage, Gen ; 131, 142 

Gaiisevoort. Colonel 156 

Garrison. William L 232 

Gaspee, Affair of the 128 

Gates, Gen 1.59,107 

Georgia .35, 99. 112. 104, 220, 250, 282 

Germantown, Battle of 1.54 

Gettysburg, Battle of. 277 

Ghent, Treaty of 216 

Gorges 07 

Gosnold, Bartholomew 54, 00 

Grand Model 98 

Giant, Gen 2&3, 265, 2&5, 297 

Great Meadows 105 

Salt Lake 249 

Greeley, Horace 299 

Greene, (ien 1.3.5, 151, 172, 171, 187 

Greenland 16 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty a43 

Guill'iird Court House 173 

Hadlev. Suri)rise of 76 

Hale, Capt. Nathan 149, 171 

Ilalhrk. (Jen 2(iO, 272 

Hamilton, Alexander . . . .178, 179, 184, 200 

Hancock. John 129, 1.32, 140, 147 

Ilarinar. Ocn., Defeat of. 185 

Harjx'r's Kerry 254, 201. 273 

Harrison, Gen 20.5, 211, 23o, 233 

Hartford 69 

Convention 215 

Hatteras Inlet 2(8 

Hayes. Rutherford B .304, .307 

Hayne, Col 166 



Index. 



27 



Henry, Patrick 1-26, 131, 138, 304 

Herkimer, Gen 156 

Hessians 148,150,159 

Hispaniola 22 

Hobkirk's Hill, Battle of 173 

Hood, Gen 285 

Hooker, Gen 371, STti 

Hooker, Kev. Thomas. G9 

Howe, Admiral 153 

Howe, Blias 302 

Howe, Gen 136, 142, 148, 153, 162 

Hul)l)ardton, Battle of 156 

Hudson, Henry 47, 80 

Hudson River 47, 80 

Huguenots .96, 112 

Hull, Capt 207 

Hull, Gen 206 

Iberville River, La Ill 

Iceland 10, 18 

Illinois 43, 220 

Indiana 219 

Indians 22, 25. 66 

Indian wars 59, 70, 76, 185, 219, 230 

Internal Improvements 225 

Inventions 187, 301 

Iowa 244 

Irving, Washington 302 

Iroquois 102 

Isabella, Queen 21 

Island No. 10 266 

Jackson, Andrew 211, 219, 226 

Jackson, " Stonewall " 271, 277 

Jamestown 53 

Jasper, Sergeant 143 

Jav, John 131,179,18.5,186 

Jefferson, Thomas 145, 184, 195, 223 

Johnson, President 290, 295 

Johnson, Col. R. M 230 

Johnston, Gen. A. S 266 

Johnston, Gen. J. E 271, 285, 890, 293 

Joliet. the explorer 41 

Jones, John Paul 165 

Kansas 37, 249, 258 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill 249 

Kearny, Gen 239 

Kentucky 190, 265 

Kidd, Captain 84 

Kieft. Gov 83 

King George's War 101 

Philil)"s War 75 

William's War 101 

King's Mountain, Battle of 172 

Kingston 160 

Knox, Gen 1 77, 184 

Knoxville 28'^ 

Lafayette 152. 162, 172, 220, 221 

Lake Champlain 107, 140, 156, 213 

Eric 209 

George 108 

La Salle 43, 102 

Lawrence, 'apt 208 

Lee, Arthur 154 

Lee, Gen. Charles 140, 142, 162 

Lee, ( Ol. Henry 173, 194 

Lee. Richard Heniy 131, 144 

Lee. Robri t E 271, 274, 282, 2aH 

Leisler. Jacob ^5 

Lewis and Clark Expedition 196, 2.58 

Le.xinglon, Mass., Battle of 134 

Lincoln, Gen. . . , , 1Q4, 166 



Lincoln. President 255, 258, 293 

Livingston, Robert R 184 

Locke, John 98 

London Company 52, 58 

l.ong Island, Baltic of 148, 172 

Longstreet, (ien 283 

Lookout Mountain, Battle of 282 

Louisburg 101, 107 

Louisiana 102, 218, 256 

Purchase 196, 257, 297 

Lundy's Lane, Battle of 212 

Lyon, Gen 262 

Mackinaw 41 

Madison, President.... 179. 205 

Magellan 31 

Magnetic Telegraph 236 

Maine 60, 220 

iMalvern Hill. Battle of 271 

March to the Sea 286 

Marco Polo 18 

Marion, Gen 143, 166 

Marquette 41 

Maryland 87, 113 

Mason, John 67 

Mason and Dixon's L'ne 91 

Mason and Slidell, Seizure of 264 

Massachusetts 68,74,113 

Massasoit 67 

Matamoras 239 

Mayflower 63 

McClellan, Gen 261, 262, 270, 273, 290 

McCrea, Jane 158 

McDonough, Com 213 

McDowell, Gen 262, 272 

Meade, Gen 277, 287 

Memphis 266 

Mercer, Gen 152, 177 

Merrimack and Monitor 268 

Mexican War 2.36, 239 

Mexico 37, 2.36.^38 

Michigan 229 

Miller'; Col 212 

Mill Spring, Battle of 265 

Minnesota 257 

Minuit, Peter 83, 92 

Minute Men 131 

Missionary Ridge 282 

Mississippi 35, 41, 220, 256 

Mi-souri 45, 220 

Mobile 214, 289 

Money 118 

Monmouth, Battle of 162 

Monocacy, Battle of. 288 

Monroe, President 219 

Montcalm, Gen' 108 

Morocco... 198 

Monierey 239 

Montgomery, Ala 25() 

IMontgomery, Gen. Richard 140 

Montreal 111. 141 

Morgan, Gen 159, 172 

Morgans Raid 283 

Mormons, The 248 

Morris, Gonverneur 200 

Moiristown 152 

Morse, Samuel P. B 2:30, 301 

Moultrie, Col 143 

Monnd-l)uilders 27 

Mount Vernon 178, 182, 194 

Mulligan, Col 263 



28 



Index. 



Murfrcesboro, Battle of 282 

Narvaez 34 

Nashville- 2C5, 28G 

Nauvoo 248 

Navigation Acts. 113 

Nebraska 249. 2!I7 

Nevada 2K:i, 290 

New Albion 3!» 

New Brunswick 41 

New England 59, 107 

Nowfoiindland . 87 

New Hampshire 07, 114 

New Haven 7() 

New Jersey ; 80, Sti, 113, 117 

New London 174 

New Mexico 239.247 

New Xethorlauds 09, 83 

New Orleans 214, 257, 206 

Newport, It 1 103 

Newport, Capt. Christopher 52 

Newspajjors 115 

New Sweden 93 

New York.. ..80, 85. 112, 110, 120, 177, 257 

Niairara 107, 111 

Norfolk 271 

Norsemen 15 

Nortli Carolina 90, 135, 184 

North, Lord 176 

Northmen 15 

Norway 16 

North-west Territory 190 

Nova Scotia 41 

Nnlliftcation in South Carolina 228 

Nueces River 2;3S 

Oglesthorpe, James Edward 99, 112 

Ohio 28. 103, 190 

Olustee 284 

Oregon 257 

Oriskanj' 156 

Osceola %Vi 

Ossawatomic 254 

Otis, James 120, 304 

Pacific 31. 39 

Paine, Thomas 142 

Pakenham, Gen 214 

Palo Alto, Battle of 238 

Palos 2:3 

Paoli 1.54 

Penn. William . . 80, 91 

Pennsylvania 91,113.11-7 

Pensacola 214, 219 

Pequod War 70 

Perry, Commodore 209, 250 

Perry ville. Battle of 274 

Petersburg 288,292 

Philadeljihia 94, 112, 139, 154, 161, 178 

Philip, King 75 

Phipps, Sir William 78 

Pickens. Gen 100 

Piedmont 288 

Pierce. President 249 

Pigot, Gen 138 

Pike. Gen 212 

Pilgrims 02 

Pillow. Gen 205 

Pinckney, W 192 

Pitcairn, Maj 133 

Pitt. William 107, 127 

Pittsburg Landing. Battle of 200 

Pi/,arro 31,34 



Plains of Abraham 110 

Plattsburg 213 

Plymouth Colony 0.5, 67 

Company 52,00 

Council 61 

Pocahontas 55 

Point Comfort 53. 88 

Political parties 179 

Polk. President 2:^7 

Poniiiic's War ill 

Pope, Gen 206, 272 

Popham. George (K) 

Porter. Admiral 215. 200, 284, 290 

Port Hudson 281 

Koyal. S. C 97.203 

Royal. N.S 41, 101 

Porlo Rico 32 

Portsmouth . 07 

Powhatan 54 

Preble. Commodore 198 

Prescott. Col 135 

Princeton, Battle of 1.52 

Printing 115, 302 

Providence 73 

Puobia SJ40 

Pulaski 1.54. 105 

Puritans 44,01,71,80 

Putnam, Gi-n 135 

Quakers 74,112 

Quebec 41,107,108,109,141 

Queen Anne's War 101 

Rahl, Gen 151 

Railroads 232 

Rileigh. Sir Waller 40, 98 

Riindolph. Edmund 184 

Ruwdon, Lord 173 

Reconstruction of Southern States. 

296, 297 

Red River E.Kjiedition 284 

Resaca de la Raima, Battle of 23S 

Revere. Paul 132 

Revolution 125 

Rhode Island 73, 113, 184 

Ribault 96 

Richmond, Ky 274 

Richmond, Va 174, 201, 291 

Rio (irande 35, 238 

Roanoke Island 40, 52, 267 

Robin.-'on, John 61 

Rochambeau 174 

Rocky Mountains 47, 248 

Rolfe, John .57 

Rosecrans, Gen 274, 282 

Roger Williams 72 

Ross. Gen 213 

Salem 08 

Witchcraft 78 

San Francisco 37, 39. 24:5, 240 

Sanitarv Commission 279 

San Salvador 22, :« 

Santa Anna 2:W 

Santa Fe .53 

Saratoga. Battle of 1.59 

Savannah 112. 164, 287 

Saybrook Colony 09 

Schools 115, 116, 255 

Schuyler. Gen 140, 156 

Scott. Gen 212, 228, 239, 258, 201, 2(12 

Secession 228, 255 

Seminole Wars 219, 230 



Index. 



29 



Semmes, Capt 264, 289 

Seward, William 11 2!)3 

Sewing Macliiiio 303 

Shays's Rebellion 178 

Shenandoah Valley 271,288 

Sheridan, Gen 2S8, 291, 293 

Sherman, Gen. W. T 283. 284, 285, 28G 

Shiloh, Battle of 3fi6 

Slavery 58, 112, 220, 2:31, 249, 252 

Slote, Commodore 2:39 

Smith, John 53, 60 

South Carolina 96, 238, 256 

Mountain, Battle of 273 

Spanish Explorations 21-48 

Speedwell 63 

Spottpylvania Court House, Battle of. 287 

Stamp Act 125,127 

Standish, Miles 64 

Stark, Gen 135,138, 151, 158, 172 

St. Augustine, Fla 53 

St. Clair, Gen 156, 185 

St. Lawrence River 41,110 

St. Leger's Expedition 1.56 

St. Louis 301 

St. Marv's, Md 89 

Steamboats 201, 2.33 

Stillwater, Battle of 159 

Stockton, Com 2.39 

Stony Point 165 

Stuyvesant, Gov 84, 112 

Sullivan, Gen 1.51, 16.3, 164 

Sumter, Fort 2.56, 257, 200 

Sumter, Gen 166,167, 256 

Sumter, Steamer . 264 

Swedes 84, 86, 94 

Tariff 225, 230 

Tarleton, Col 173 

■ Ta.xation 127, 129 

Taxed tea 129 

Tavlor, Gen. Zachary 2-30, 238, 244 

Tecumseh 205, 21 1 

Telegraph 236, 301 

Tennessee 190, 201. 265, 283 

Texas 2.36,238,2.56 

Thames, Battle of 211 

Thomas, Gen 265, 282, 286 

Ticonderoga 108, 135, 1.56 

Tilden, S.J 304 

Tippecanoe. Battle of 205 

Tobacco 40, .57, 114, 255 

Topical Reviews 49, 124. 181, 253, 306 

Tories 148,1.59,103 

Treaties of Paris Ill, 176 



Trenton 1.50, ia3 

Tripoli. War with 198, 218 

Tanis 218 

Tyler, President 2:34, 2:35 

Utah 247 

Valley Forge 1.55 

Van Biiren, President 229, 230 

Van Twiller 83 

Vasco da Gama 19 

Vera Cruz 240 

Vermont 158, 184 

Verrazzani 80 

Vicksburg 266, 281 

Vinland 18 

Virginia 37, 5.5, 112, 127, 259, 261, 270 

and Monitor 271 

Wampum 118 

Ward, Gen 1:35 

War of 1812 206 

with Mexico 236 

Warren, Joseph 129, 133, 138 

Washington. 

103,^107. 131, 139, 1S3, 176, 179, 182, 194 

Washington Citv 195. 213 

Wayne, Gen 151, 165. 185 

Webster, Daniel 147, 223, 2:35, 248 

Wesleys. The 100 

West Point 81.169 

West Virginia 28, 261, 283 

Whiskey Rebellion 186 

Whitefield. George 100 

Wliite Plains 149 

Whitney, Eli 186 

Wilderness, Battle of the 287 

Wilkes, Capt 264 

Williamsburg, Va 271 

Williams, Roger 72 

Wilmington 290 

Wilmot Proviso 245 

Wilson's Creek 263 

Winchester 288 

M'ingfield 53 

Winslow. Governor 73 

Wiiithrop, the elder 68 

Winthrop, the younger 69 

Wisconsin 41,244 

Witchcraft 78 

Wolfe, Gen 109 

Wool, Gen 271 

Wyoming Massacre 163 

York (Toronto), Canada 212 

York. Pa 213 

Yorkto wn, Va 174 



